FALLOUT FROM ADL’S POSITION ELICITS INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
By Raphael Kohan
The Jewish Advocate, MA
Aug 30 2007
Andrew H. Tarsy
Turkey calls on Israel to keep Jewish organizations in line
Now that the Anti-Defamation League has reinstated Andrew H. Tarsy
to its New England Region, ADL leaders say they want to move past the
issues that have divided them in recent weeks, even as the organization
is faced with international fallout.
"The ADL has confronted a very important issue and done a significant
thing for acknowledging the Armenian genocide," said Tarsy in a
meeting on Monday with the Advocate and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s
national director. "But now we go forward."
Foxman fired Tarsy on Aug. 17 after he spoke out publicly against
ADL’s official position at the time.
The events of the past month, which stemmed from a debate surrounding
recognition of the Armenian massacres during World War I as genocide,
have raised serious questions about the relationships of local
chapters to national organizations, as well as the relationships of
morally-concerned American Jews to the political realities facing
the state of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.
"It’s a much bigger issue than the community here may realize," said
Foxman. "These are two moral imperatives that come into conflict,
and one has to make a choice."
Upon learning of Foxman’s reversal on the term "genocide" last week,
diplomatic officials in Jerusalem expressed disbelief, the Jerusalem
Post reported. One senior Foreign Ministry official even declined to
comment because he did not believe the authenticity of the statement.
One of the issues the controversy highlights is how Boston Jews
overwhelmingly responded in support of Tarsy and recognizing the
Armenian genocide, regardless of what political repercussions may
follow in the Middle East.
"It is relatively easy to say this in Massachusetts, bordered by
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York,"
reporter Herb Keinon wrote in the Jerusalem Post. "American Jews can
take the high moral ground on issues such as these, because there is
no real consequence; they don’t have to pay any tangible cost."
Consul General of Israel to New England Nadav Tamir said there is an
understandable difference between policy-makers in the Jewish state
and Jewish organizational heads in the Bay State.
"They have their own interests and issues," Tamir said of American
Jewish groups. "Sometime they have to be more ideological. They don’t
have realpolitik like countries have."
Even as the ADL has held steadfast that a congressional resolution
on the genocide would prove "counterproductive," Turkish officials
have been angered by the human rights organization’s shift last week.
"Turkey expressed chagrin that we had to take sides on this issue,"
said Foxman. "How would you feel if you woke up in the morning and the
newspaper headline read, ‘Jewish lobby stabs Turkey in the back?’"
The question remains, however, of how an organization’s ideological
stance impacts another country’s political agreements, like the
Turkish-Israeli alliance, which is precisely what seems to be hanging
in the balance.
Foxman’s reversal set off alarm bells in Turkey that not even
statements reinforcing Israel’s unchanged position on genocide
recognition could pacify.
Turkish Ambassador to Israel Namik Tan, who cut short his summer
vacation after learning of ADL’s position change, told the Jerusalem
Post: "Israel should not let the [U.S.] Jewish community change its
position. This is our expectation and this is highly important."
Despite the role of American Jewish organizations in lobbying on
Israel’s behalf, the Jewish state does not set their agenda, according
to Tamir.
"They’re not getting dictates from Israel," he said. "We will try to
explain to the Turks that Jewish organizations are not representing
the Israeli government necessarily."
For all the international implications encompassed by the events
of the last few weeks, Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish
History at Brandeis University, said there may be fallout that also
impacts the dynamic of Jewish organizational life.
"This will be remembered as a very unusual episode where a rebellious
chapter managed to transform the parent organization," said Sarna.
"My sense is we’ll see other examples of chapters rebelling in
different ways against the dictates of the center."
Yet others maintain it is precisely the international relationships
fostered by a national headquarters that allow it to be best informed
on diplomatic concerns, which fall outside the jurisdiction of local
chapters.
"The issue for the ADL is not whether or not there was genocide against
the Armenians – there clearly was," Grand Rabbi Y. A. Korff said in
a statement. "Rather the real issue for the ADL is, after considering
all the complexities, competing interests, and the consequences, what
their official policy should be and how, or by whom, that decision
should be made."
With Foxman expressing one view and local Jewish groups expressing
another, the national ADL head said the public attacks against him
and ADL proved most upsetting to him.
"I found it personally disheartening that good people in the Jewish
community were not willing to give us the benefit of the doubt that
we were acting in good faith in the best interest of the Jewish
community," said Foxman.
For now, Foxman and Tarsy are both looking to put this ordeal behind
them so they can move forward in promoting new initiatives on the
organization’s agenda.
"I hope it will be a learning experience for us all," said Foxman.
"We paid a high price for it, but it brings the community a better
understanding of what’s at stake."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
