On Tuesday, January 7, 2014, the Washington Times reported that a scandal has arisen in Chile.  It seems that the Palestino Soccer Team has now decided to wear jerseys which show a map of Palestine that erases Israel from the map.

[The Palestinian Soccer Club] of Chile released its new jersey that includes the number "1" in the shape of Israel and the Palestinian territories, implying all of the land is Palestinian ... Washington Times

As I write this, hour by hour, more Jewish sites are picking up the story and declaring outrage.

The Palestino Soccer club, started by Christian Palestinian immigrants to Chile in 1920, has always be notorious for having fans that are politically hostile to Israel. The fans wear keffiyahs, and shout Intifada as their slogan.  This action by team management has given the hostility an imprimatur and taken it to a new level.

This is not merely the manifestation of some disgruntled sports team with leftist tendencies.  There is an increasingly alarming trend of pro-Palestinian sympathy in South America that Washington is doing little to contest.   South America is daily getting more and more hostile to Israel.  Saudis and Iranians are pouring in massive money to propagandize a continent. 

Yes, the Muslims would love to Islamicize the Latins -- and there are Islamic outreaches -- but there seems to be minimal chance of significant conversions to Mohammedanism in a continent where wine, Tango, Samba, and Carnaval are cultural mainstays.  The odd convert is trotted out as a triumph of Islam, while the millions of converts to evangelical Christianity are ignored.

What is succeeding however is a vicious anti-Israel campaign.  The United States is doing nothing about it.  Israel seems to have only recently woken up to the coming tsunami.

Some recent -- and certainly incomplete -- list of notable events over the past years:

In early 2013, Argentina agreed to Iranian assistance in investigating the culprits of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.  Iran did the bombing!  Why on earth would Argentina ask for Iranian help?

Israel was furious.  While some Argentines dissented from this farce, Obama was loosening restrictions on Iran, even though Argentina still wants the AMIA bombing inserted into any talks with Iran.  Does Argentine President Cristina Fernandez have more sense than Obama?!

Consider Maurico Abu Ghosh, the President of the Palestinian Federation of Chile.  He heads an organization which, for years, has been flooding Chile with truly bilious attacks against Israel.  In April 2012, Mr. Abu Ghosh was detained at Ben Gurion Airport after flying in to visit Palestinians; and he was deported. 

The Chilean government issued a statement at the time criticizing Jerusalem's decision not to admit Abu Gosh into the country. - JPost

It was headline news in Chile, where Palestinians are elites and punch well above their weight -- so much so that the Chilean government protested a deportation that other governments would have ignored, or quietly approved.

At 15% of the population, Chile's pro-Zionist evangelicals outnumber Palestinians five-to-one, but who does the Chilean government pander to?

A few months later, Mr. Abu Ghosh would later describe the Israel is worse than Nazis.

Telling listeners that Israel is inflicting a "brutal genocide" on Palestinians, Abu-Ghosh added that "the Nazis were boys compared to current Zionists."  - Times of Israel

In 2012 Hugo Chavez helped inaugurate Iran's HispanTV.

The Islamic country's news agency recently launched a Spanish-language TV channel, Hispan TV, with the support and help of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. - Latino Fox News

Even Europe, no lover of Israel, had enough sense to ban Iran's PressTV (English) and Hispan TV (Spanish) from broadcasting.  Press TV is not a free news agency, but a state propaganda tool.  To get around this ban, Iran is now working to get full access to a Venezuelan satellite.

Here in America, the ADL recognized the threat and tried to get both PressTV's and HispanTV's live streaming dropped from YouTube.  In spite of the ADL's initial success, HispanTV seems to be back up netcasting.

Israel compounded the problem by omission.  Israel recently started I24News - an online Israeli network in English, French and Arabic - in order to get their message across.  The choice of Arabic makes sense.  Get your message across to the enemy; but why were 65 Million Frenchmen deemed more important than 600 Million Latin Americans in an area of the world which is becoming more important every day?  Why isn't I24News netcasting is Spanish?  There are tens of thousands of Argentine Jews in Israel. It's not like Israel lacks the human resources.

In 2010, South American nations started falling over themselves rushing to grant diplomatic recognition to Palestine.  Only Colombia dissented.  The Washington Post recognized that the Palestinians started their march to official recognition in South America.   The rest of the world would follow.

"We were concentrated on giving as much priority to this region, South America, as possible," said Muaqqat, 57, a diplomat in the region for 32 years. "It had an effect. They saw the whole panorama." - Washington Post

The Arabs had been working for years to set up a massive diplomatic victory.  They did not get it overnight, though it may have seemed that way.  Where was Obama?  Where was Israel?    Didn't anybody notice the Arab diplomatic assault in the region?   The Arabs are broadcasting it, for Pete's sake.  Abbas was feted in 2009 in Chile.

In 1995, The Saudis managed to get land for their King Fahd Mosque in downtown Buenos Aires donated to them by the Argentine government.  Downtown Buenos Aires was - and still is - one of the priciest pieces of real estate on the planet.  How did the Saudis get 8 acres donated to them for free?

In Uruguay, the Catholic University has a permanent chair in Islamic Studies.  Catholic University?  Uruguay?  Why Islamic, not Arab Studies?  With only 350 Muslims in Uruguay, who would even enter the program?  Who is paying for it?  Why?

Right now, Latin America is in the midst of a massive evangelical revival that likes of which have not been seen since the Reformation. Tens of millions have already converted to Pentecostal Christianity.  There is no chance of flipping South America to Islam.  Anyone leaving Catholicism for Islam would more than likely end up Pentecostal in short order.

The Saudis and Iranians must know that converts to Islam will be few.  If anything they must know that  any Muslims sent to South America will probably end up Christian.  So why are they spending this much money and effort?

The only purpose for this can only be to destroy Israel.  Can't our State Department recognize that what is being spread is not freedom of religion; but an excuse to destroy Israel?  This is political, and the USA should be fighting it more determinedly.

The USA has surrendered Latin America to Saudi and Iranian propaganda.  Israel, while aware of the problem, did not give it the attention it deserved. 

Israel runs the risk of losing the battle for public opinion in Latin America if it doesn't devote more resources to its advocacy efforts there, Jewish officials from that part of the world warned at the World Jewish Congress, which drew to a close on Tuesday. - Jpost (2011)

Too late. South America is lost. 

So Tuesday, January 7, 2014, a major league professional soccer club representing the elite of Chile has just issued jerseys to its players which erase Israel off the map.

When Presdient Obama went to Cairo and apologized for the Crusades, very few realized how completely he had abandoned Western Civilization.  The Congress must arrest this slide.  What I can't figure out is why Israel is doing nothing?

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who is not Jewish, Latin, or Arab. He runs a website, http://latinarabia.com/, where he discusses the subculture of Arabs in Latin America. He wishes his Spanish were better.