ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – JEWISH CAMPAIGN ISSUE?
By Larry Lipman

Palm Beach Post, FL
April 25 2007

Wexler blasted for opposing Armenian genocide resolution

WASHINGTON – It’s an issue that is splitting the Jewish community
and has entered a South Florida congressional primary: How can a
Jewish congressman not recognize the 1915 massacre of possibly 1.5
million Armenian civilians as genocide? The issue was raised Tuesday –
recognized by many countries as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day – by
Ben Graber, a former state representative and former Broward County
mayor who plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Delray Beach
in next year’s Democratic primary.

Graber, who is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors, called
Wexler an "embarrassment" to the Jewish community for opposing a
resolution in the House of Representatives that recognizes the killing
and deportation of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from
California who is Jewish. It has been bottled up in the House Foreign
Affairs Committee whose chairman is Rep. Tom Lantos – also a Democrat
from California who is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.

Wexler, who is also Jewish and serves as co-chairman of the
Congressional Turkey Caucus, said there is debate among historians
about whether the killings should be classified as genocide.

"There is no question that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were
massacred, that is not debatable," Wexler said, noting that the
killings took place during World War I when the Armenian population
in the Ottoman Empire sided with the czarist Russians.

"The only question before the Congress is does the Congress have
the expertise to make that historical conclusion" that the killings
were genocide.

Wexler said his position is in line with that adopted by most major
Jewish organizations – including the Anti-Defamation League and the
American Jewish Committee, U.S. presidents of both parties, and the
Israeli government.

He said it would be unfair to describe his position or those taken
by the Jewish organizations or Israel as being "deniers" of genocide.

But Graber said the record is clear. He cited reports and comments
from leading figures of the time, including then-U.S. Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau Sr., who later wrote: "when the Turkish authorities gave
the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death
warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their
conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal
the fact." David Shneer, director of the University of Denver Center
for Judaic Studies and an associate professor of history, said,
"serious historians of the history of 20th Century genocide would
agree that the Armenian genocide happened. Those who dispute that it
happened tend to have some type of political agenda." Wexler said he
is a strong supporter of efforts by the Bush administration and some
international leaders to convene a commission of experts – including
representatives from Armenia and Turkey – to examine the historical
record and seek a resolution to the issue.

The issue has international significance because of Turkey’s role as
a Western-leaning Muslim country that in recent decades has adamantly
denied the killings were genocide. Turkey has made it illegal for
its citizens to publicly take that position.

Turkey also is a rare Muslim ally of both the United States and Israel.

"To totally undermine that relationship could be extremely costly
for America and Israel," Wexler said.

"I want to make sure we deploy our American troops out of Iraq as
soon as possible," Wexler said. "In order to best accomplish that,
we need to have cooperation from Turkey." Graber said Wexler and other
opponents of the resolution were being "hypocritical." "If it was the
Jewish Holocaust that was in question, you can be certain that there
would be no question about the facts. There are some things that you
just can’t deny. You have to say ëyes it happened,’ accept it, and go
forward." Just as the current generation of Germans blames the World
War II Holocaust on the Nazis, Graber said the current generation of
Turks should blame the Armenia genocide on the Ottomans.

"This is something that is too important and too big to not recognize
for political reasons," he said. "It’s an issue of what is right."

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