The Daily Foxman
Joey Kurtzman
A ugust 24, 2007
TAGS: Abraham Foxman
< n>
Activism< z_categories/activism>
anti-defamation
league < ue> Armenian
Genocide< enian_genocide> The
Daily Foxman <;
*Daily commentary on the ADL/Armenian Genocide uproar
*
*HA’ARETZ OP-ED CALLS FOR FOXMAN’S RESIGNATION*: Today Ha’aretz published "The
Politics of Hypocrisy < l>" an
op-ed by Friend of *Jewcy* Evan Goldstein in which Evan calls for Abraham
Foxman’s resignation.
Goldstein laments Foxman’s decline from an "ardent champion of civil rights"
to a "morally obtuse and ethically challenged" embarrassment. He’s also
exasperated by Foxman’s explanation that his "reversal" on the Armenian
Genocide issue was motivated by his "concern for the unity of the Jewish
community." Asks Evan, "What does the unity or disunity of the Jewish people
have to do with distinguishing between historical fact and malicious
fabrication?"
"Morally obtuse" is a pitch-perfect description of the following Foxman
comments: "This is not a time for Jews to be attacking each other over an
issue that is really not central." "Now, they’ve insisted on the g-word.
Fine." "I still don’t think it’s our issue, but so many people believe it is
our issue=85 I said okay."
Unbelievable. But okay, so Foxman didn’t quite summon the moral fervor of
the Jewish prophets when he made these comments to reporters. Let’s put
aside the moral issues for a moment. I’m also blown away by the jaw-dropping
political incompetence here.
There was an uproar over Foxman’s denial of genocide because people consider
this a morally salient issue, and one that should transcend politics.
Foxman’s underlings at the national ADL must be mortified that Foxman would
tell every reporter within earshot that he only revisited it because he
didn’t want Jews wasting their energy arguing about something this
unimportant. How can a man who spent four decades engaged in public debate
on sensitive issues be so profoundly tone-deaf to sensibilities about
genocide? It gobsmacks.
So when one member of the ADL frets to the Boston Globe over the question,
"Are we an organization of principle?" Um=85 how about, "no." Not so long as
the guy responsible for the above comments is calling the shots.
*WILL THE ADL LOBBY AGAINST THE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTIONS?*: When Foxman
issued his statement declaring that that "the consequences of [Turkish]
actions were indeed tantamount to genocide," this was, as I’ve said
previously, not at all a recognition of the genocide but rather a
restatement of a typical trope of the denialists: No one tried to obliterate
the Armenian people, and whatever happened was simply an ugly and unplanned
outcome of war.
However, most Armenian-Americans seem willing to accept that the ADL has
reversed its position, because they want to move on to the more important
issue. Before Foxman issued his statement, David Boyajian, the
Armenian-American from Newton, Massachusetts who did so much to get events
in his home state rolling, sent me this comment in e-mail:
Joey, something is up: damage control. They want the issue to die, with ADL
making some half-baked acknowledgment and then promptly continuing to lobby
against us as before. It’s a very sneaky game.
And that’s exactly what seems to have come to pass. Ultimately, most
Armenian-Americans don’t just want the recognition of the ADL, they want the
ADL and other Jewish organizations to stop lobbying against the
congressional resolutions recognizing the genocide. And that, now, is the
big question before those of us who care about either the Armenian Genocide
or the moral integrity of "justice-seeking" Jewish organizations such as the
ADL.
Thomas Lifson of American Thinker put
it< /08/adls_curious_indifference_ends.html>this
wa y:
A genocide is still a genocide, where or not it is politically convenient to
speak the truth. I always thought the ADL was supposed to be in the moral
truth-telling business. After all, it expects to be taken seriously as a
moral force, it needs to be."
So I believe the organization needs to clarify why it now believes the
Armenian genocide was a genocide, and why it doesn’t want Congress calling
it that.
Source: daily_foxman