IS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL GOOD FOR THE JEWS?

by The Stiletto
Blogger News Network

Aug 27 2007

Earlier this month, the Town Council in Watertown, MA, home one of
the largest Armenian populations in the U.S., voted 8-0 to withdraw
from the No Place for Hate program because one of its sponsors, the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL), refused to acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide of 1915-1917.

"We cannot join with the ADL when they refuse to acknowledge
the [Armenian] genocide," Councilor Marilyn Petitto Devaney, who
introduced the proclamation to withdraw from the program, told The
Boston Globe. The town’s Armenian Americans wanted the ADL either to
condemn the Armenian Genocide or end its sponsorship of the campaign.

Watertown was one of 67 MA communities that had adopted the program,
and as others indicated they would reconsider their own participation,
Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s National Director since 1987, held his
nose and released this statement on August 21, 2007 in an effort to
quell the controversy:

In light of the heated controversy that has surrounded the
Turkish-Armenian issue in recent weeks, and because of our concern
for the unity of the Jewish community at a time of increased threats
against the Jewish people, ADL has decided to revisit the tragedy
that befell the Armenians.

We have never negated but have always described the painful events
of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians
as massacres and atrocities. On reflection, we have come to share the
view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. that the consequences of those actions
were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed
then, they would have called it genocide.

I have consulted with my friend and mentor Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel
and other respected historians who acknowledge this consensus. I hope
that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey’s friends who urge that
nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over
this dark chapter in history.

Having said that, we continue to firmly believe that a Congressional
resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will
not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put
at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral
relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States.

Foxman’s belated acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide – though
momentous – is decades late and falls very short.

Writing in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Evan R. Goldstein, a contributing
editor at Moment magazine deconstructs Foxman’s non-acknowledgement
acknowledgement, which he denounces as being "stunning on account of
its total lack of integrity":

First, note the disingenuous way Foxman lays the groundwork for his
disgracefully belated admission of the obvious, by attributing his
reversal to the risk of disunity within the Jewish community. What
does the unity or disunity of the Jewish people have to do with
distinguishing between historical fact and malicious fabrication?

Second, note how Foxman completely fails to grasp the fundamental
significance of Morgenthau’s legacy (which he was nonetheless clearly
intent on co-opting). Serving as America’s ambassador in Istanbul
at the time of the genocide, Morgenthau alerted his superiors in
Washington that the ongoing persecution of Armenians was "assuming
unprecedented proportions," ultimately characterizing Turkish
aggression as an "effort to exterminate a whole race." (The word
"genocide" was not coined until 1944.) And although the American
response to Morgenthau’s cables was dreadfully feeble, his actions
testify to the ethical imperative of bearing witness and acknowledging
inconvenient truths. In contrast, Foxman’s statement of contrition
diminishes the importance of the truth.

Third, note the weasel words "consequences" and "tantamount" – why
not just say it was genocide?

The Stiletto would like to add that Foxman’s fears over the safety
of the Jewish community in Turkey are baseless, considering that The
Wall Street Journal, for one, repeatedly assures us that Turkey is a
secular, pluralistic democracy (third item). Therefore acknowledging
the Armenian Genocide and supporting H Res 106 would not imperil
Turkish Jews in any way.

Asked And Answered

Unfortunately, Goldstein’s rhetorical question, "why not just say it
was genocide?" was answered within days of Foxman’s press release.

The Turkish government condemned the Anti-Defamation League’s decision
to call the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide,
reports The Boston Globe:

"We consider the statement of the ADL as an injustice to the unique
character of the Holocaust, as well as to the memories of its victims,"
the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We expect it to
be rectified."

Burak Akcapar, first counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Washington,
D.C., said Turkey has registered its concerns with Israel, the United
States, and "friends everywhere."

Turkey pulled out all the stops in pressuring its "friends everywhere."

Haaretz, quotes Foreign Ministry sources as describing a meeting
between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Israel’s ambassador
to Ankara, Pinhas Avivi, as "shrill," and that "Gul told the Israeli
ambassador that ‘Turkey knows Israel was not responsible for the
Anti-Defamation League’s announcement, but is disappointed because
Israel could have done something to prevent it.’"

Prime minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoðan also called Israel’s
president Shimon Peres and asked him to lean on Foxman and other
Jewish organizations to ensure they keep toeing the genocide-denial
line, reports Turkish paper Today’s Zaman:

Erdoðan stressed the "futility" of the ADL decision to call the
events genocide in the conversation and Peres responded by saying
that Israel’s well-known position on the issue of genocide claims
has not changed. The Israeli prime minister also said Israel attached
great importance to relations with Turkey and promised to "advocate
Turkey’s position on the issue in the US."

Israel wanted to put out the diplomatic fire as quickly as possible,
reports Haaretz:

Israel is concerned that the matter may lead to a genuine diplomatic
crisis between the two countries, and it has sent quiet signals to
American Jewish organizations in an effort to lower the tone. The
Foreign Ministry is concerned that the strategic relationship between
the two countries could be harmed and that the Jewish community in
Turkey could be affected.

Peres – himself an Armenian Genocide denier – wasted no time calling
Foxman over the imbroglio. After speaking with Peres, Foxman dashed off
a reassuring letter to Erdoðan that "expressed regret over debates
centered on its recent decision to recognize Armenian claims of
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire," according to Today’s
Zaman. The letter also reportedly stated that the ADL "has never
desired to put the Turkish people and their leaders into a difficult
situation" and expressed "deep regret over what the Turkish people
had to go through in the past few days" since the organization agreed
to reverse a long-standing policy and recognize the genocide.

The Turkish Daily News adds that the letter suggested the ADL would not
back away from its opposition to H Res 106: "The force and passion of
the debate today leaves us more convinced than ever that this issue
does not belong in a forum such as the United States Congress."

Which guarantees that Armenians and Jews who have been at odds with
Foxman over the Armenian Genocide are not likely to be placated by
his tepid – and wavering – concession that the Ottoman Turks had
committed genocide, and will continue to press him to abandon his
untenable opposition to H Res 106.

Jewish Leaders Must Stop Enabling Armenian Genocide Denial

The controversy over the No Place For Hate program "is shining a
spotlight on the American Jewish community’s refusal to get behind
a congressional bill acknowledging the Armenian genocide," according
to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA):

"Here in Watertown, you can’t ignore the Armenian genocide," said
Ruth Thomasian, the sole Armenian member of Watertown’s "No Place for
Hate" planning committee, which operates independently of ADL. "You
can’t call it ‛alleged’ or ‛supposed’ or ‛research
says.’ Genocide happened."

Writing in the Forward, Leonard Fein notes:

Unlike the many nations that have established commissions of truth
and reconciliation, that have looked fearlessly into their own past
crimes against humanity (most notably, Germany itself), Turkey hires
K Street lobbyists to persuade the American public and the U.S.

Congress that its hands are clean, its heart is pure. …

It is doubtful that many people are persuaded by the Turks and their
lobbyists. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recognizes
the Armenian genocide, as does the Reform Jewish movement, as,
one assumes, do most Jewish leaders, at least privately – perhaps
even the leaders of the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish
Committee, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and
B’nai B’rith International. Yet the leaders of these organizations
have steadfastly refused to endorse a bill currently before Congress
that would formally acknowledge the fact of the Armenian genocide.

Some believe the reticence on the part of the ADL and other Jewish
organizations to call a genocide a genocide is misguided Zionism. In
an interview with the Forward, a member of ADL’s national executive
committee speaking on condition of anonymity framed the issue
in these terms: "Are we an organization of principle? Are we an
organization that will stand up for what’s right and wrong? Or are
our principles put through some kind of filter that involves Israel’s
self-interest? There is that subtext here."

Foxman, says the Forward, is "faced with the fight of his professional
life … forced into a rare and reluctant retreat by the unlikeliest
of adversaries: an ethnic minority charging one of the world’s
most famous Holocaust survivors with suppressing recognition of a
genocide." It took a "a potential mutiny from fellow Jews" to get
him to reverse himself on the Armenian Genocide, and he remains under
intense criticism for his intransigence over H Res 106 – proposed by
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and co-sponsored by 29 out 43 Jewish
members of Congress.

A Generational Divide

Young Jews, in particular, are leading the charge against Foxman.

Jewcy Media, which describes itself as "a leading Internet content,
commerce, and new media company for progressive free-thinkers," may
have been the first to urge the ADL to "Fire Foxman" in this July 8,
2007 article by Joey Kurtzman:

Abdullah Gul needed a favor. It was February 5 of this year, and
the Turkish foreign minister was fighting a push in the U.S. House
of Representatives to recognize the Turkish murder of over one
million Armenians during World War I. In past years the House had
placated Turkey by dropping similar resolutions. But now, with the
American-Turkish alliance weakened by the Iraq war, the resolution
had found renewed support. Gul summoned representatives from the
Anti-Defamation League and several other Jewish-American organizations
to his room at the Willard Hotel in Washington. There he asked them,
in essence, to perpetuate Turkey’s denial of genocide.

Abraham Foxman’s ADL acquiesced, and in so doing, performed the
pièce de resistance of Foxman’s highly effective, if unintentional,
decades-long campaign to demoralize Jewish America and send young
Jews scurrying for the communal exit doors. The ADL chief is a danger
to the future of the community, and it is a scandal that he remains
at the head of a major Jewish organization. Foxman must go. And the
organization he has done so much to shape must either change or go
with him. …

"I don’t think congressional action will help reconcile the issue.

The resolution takes a position; it comes to a judgment," said Foxman
in a statement issued to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "The Turks and
Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn’t
be the arbiter of that history, nor should the U.S. Congress."

Foxman’s statement is in every way that matters equivalent to Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s claim that he takes no position on the historicity of
the Jewish Holocaust, but only hopes to see the matter resolved by
dispassionate study. Throughout the Congressional saga surrounding
the resolutions, virtually no one other than Turkish lobbyists had
explained their opposition by challenging the nearly undisputed
consensus among historians that a genocide did indeed take place.

It is a scandal of unprecedented proportion when one of the most
prominent figures in our community, a man who claims to speak on our
behalf, publicly challenges the historicity of another community’s
genocide. Foxman’s ADL no longer represents the interests of the
Jewish community. In fact, it seems the only interests it represents
are its own. …

In an interview with JTA following this piece, Kurtzman reiterated:

Jewish organizations should be "visible and vocal in standing with
the Armenian community."

"Unless Jewish Americans are comfortable for others to remain
similarly agnostic about whether the Holocaust took place, we ought
to be every bit as furious with Foxman as are Armenian Americans,"
he said. "Foxman ought to issue a public retraction and an apology
to the Armenian community, and also to the Jewish community. Barring
that, he should be fired."

Neither history nor time is on the side of Armenian Genocide deniers.

This is no longer just "an Armenian issue." The Boston Globe notes
there is "a growing antigenocide constituency in the United States,"
adding:

The feeling is evident in the US House of Representatives, where
227 members, a majority, are cosponsoring a resolution to recognize
the Armenian genocide. It is the largest number of cosponsors the
resolution has had in recent years. And perhaps more importantly, with
Democrats in power Armenian-Americans are optimistic the resolution
will get to the floor for a vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has supported
the resolution in the past.

But a vote is hardly a guarantee. Representative Adam Schiff, the
California Democrat who introduced the resolution, said the Turkish
efforts to lobby against the measure are "beyond anything I’ve
ever seen."

And the antigenocide consituency is not just in the U.S. Take, for
example, the blog Genats-Lehayim ("to life" in Armenian and Hebrew),
which is "devoted to Armenian-Jewish cooperation in the diasporas,
Armenia, and Israel."

The future belongs to Armenians and Jews who work together to ensure
that all crimes against humanity are condemned, and no crime against
humanity is forgotten.

Notes: This is the third in a series, "Is Armenian Genocide Denial
Good For The Jews?" To read previous installments in the series click
here and here (third item).

If you want to send a message to the ADL to stop aiding and abetting
Turkey’s Armenian Genocide denial, Jewcy Media has started an online
petition calling on Foxman to:

Acknowledge the Armenian Genocide Apologize to the Armenian-American
community Apologize to the Jewish community, for humiliating us
before our fellow-citizens In a statement posted on its Web site,
the Jewcy staff collectively argues that:

The ADL has made a monster of itself by denying a genocide. It has made
the entire Jewish community look morally incompetent for allowing
ourselves to be represented by someone who engages in Holocaust
denial. And it has earned the justified fury of the Armenian-American
community, which bears witness to the mass-murder of its forebears,
and refuses to see that memory trampled upon.

Several weeks ago, it might have been enough for Abe Foxman to give
up encouraging others to share his agnosticism about the Armenian
Genocide. But the controversy has gained momentum, and now it’s too
late for him to just stop talking.

–Boundary_(ID_BXIMKZZPlOfc31qx13hR3w)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress