Venezuela has expelled Israel's ambassador to protest against the Israeli aggression on Gaza. In response, Israel has done the same with the Venezuelan chargé d'affaires in Tel Aviv. Venezuela's Foreign Ministry announced the decision in a statement, saying the people of Venezuela express their solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people and side with them. The statement then adds that the Government of Venezuela will do its best to make sure that those who are responsible for these terrible crimes are painfully punished. Venezuela described the Israeli attacks as a "holocaust", "state terrorism" and "flagrant violations of the international law". Venezuela has ordered the Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Cohen and some of the remaining Israeli diplomats to leave the country. The statement was issued after remarks by Chavez who described the Israeli army as "coward", calling on the Israelis to demonstrate against this "aggression". How cowardly the Israeli army is, as it is boastingly saying it is defending its country while it is in fact attacking tired and innocent people, he said, calling on the Israeli people to take to the streets. "The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States," he said. A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israel would dismiss the Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of Venezuela in Tel Aviv, saying Chavez's decision rudely reflects the alliances that the Venezuela leader has entered into with Islamists and terrorists.
