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Blame the Jews
InfoIsrael
9 November 2007
By Steve Kramer
Once again the Jews are being blamed, this time by the Turks. On 10
October 2007, the 48-member US House Committee on Foreign Affairs
resolved that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against its
Armenian citizens during WWI (resolution 106). Of the eight Jews (17%
of the membership) on the committee, seven voted for the
resolution. Though the resolution was later tabled, the Jerusalem Post
headlined "Turkey blames American Jews for [the] genocide bill". (24
October) The issue of whether or not genocide against the Armenians
was carried out more than ninety years ago by the defunct Ottoman
Empire is still disputed. This article addresses the need to speak
truth to history as well as the need to face the realpolitik of
survival, as my friend Stephen Schwartz has noted.
It isn’t well known that about 600,000 Muslim Turkish civilians died
as a result of massacres or inhumane conditions during WWI, alongside
the estimated half a million to 1.5 million Christian Armenian
victims. In total, the Ottoman Empire sustained 4 million civilian
deaths, five times more than their total military deaths. For those
who want to delve behind the headlines, there is a huge amount of
pertinent material on this subject on the Internet. Eminent
historians, like Middle East expert Bernard Lewis, characterize the
deaths of the Christian Armenians as a brutal byproduct of war. He
also said, "The reality of the Armenian genocide results from nothing
more than the imagination of the Armenian people." [November 1993, Le
Monde newspaper] On 21 June 1995 a Parisian court interpreted Lewis’
remarks as a denial of the Armenian Genocide and fined him one
franc. (There’s a message there.)
Questioning the validity of an Armenian genocide is not the equivalent
of Holocaust denial. The Holocaust happened to be the first modern
genocide, authenticated by eye witness accounts, documents, pictures,
films and millions of survivors’ statements. But there were numerous
other genocides which preceded it. For example, estimates of the
genocide of the native inhabitants of the Congo at the end of the 19th
century, perpetrated by King Leopold of Belgium, range from 3 million
dead to ten times that figure.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has not vowed to right this
undisputed, grievous wrong against Africans. So, why did the Speaker
of the House vow to bring this controversial issue to the full House
for a vote? Given the huge amount of material on both sides of the
issue, disputing the veracity of the "Armenian genocide" is nothing
like Holocaust denial. Since the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist ninety
years ago, there are no living perpetrators to be punished. The
resolution, even if it had been passed by Congress, would have had
little effect on anyone. Did Nancy Pelosi have something personal to
gain from pursuing this particular issue?
Undoubtedly, the committee’s vote has muddied the waters between
America and Turkey, which is a vital ally for America in both NATO and
the war in Iraq. The vote has also soured relations between Israel and
its crucial and only Muslim ally, Turkey. (Egypt and Jordan are
certainly not allies of Israel.) I believe some overzealous Jews in
America have blundered, trading a probably meaningless resolution for
a worsened partnership between important allies.
You might think that I’m borrowing a page from the notorious
professors Walt and Mearsheimer, whose thesis in The Jewish Lobby is
that a monolithic Jewish lobby "has a far-reaching impact on America’s
posture throughout the Middle East – in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and
toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and the policies it has
encouraged are in neither America’s national interest nor Israel’s
long-term interest. The lobby’s influence also affects America’s
relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all
states face from global jihadist terror." [from the Publishers Weekly
review at Amazon.com].
On the contrary. I certainly don’t agree that
by that is hurting America and Israel’s interests. My contention is
simply that American Jews can’t celebrate their disproportionate clout
in academia, the sciences, entertainment and politics without
considering that what American Jews think, write about and do is very
significant and reverberates around the world.
The recent kerfuffle in Boston over the subject of Armenian genocide
is an example of the "blame the Jews" syndrome at work. The New
England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reacted to
pressure from the strong Armenian lobby in the Boston metropolitan
area and distanced itself from the national ADL posture, which was to
remain noncommittal on the issue. Following much adverse publicity
concerning the firing of the New England regional director Andrew
H. Tarcy, ADL head Abraham Foxman reinstated him and officially
acknowledged the genocide of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks.
Soon after, it was reported that "Senior Israeli and American Jewish
officials went out of their way to restate Jerusalem’s long-held view
that the historical dispute should be resolved between Turkey and
Armenia, a position shared by Washington as well as most major
American Jewish organizations. The ADL itself tried to calm tensions
by issuing a statement opposing a congressional resolution recognizing
that a genocide took place and by sending a letter to Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressing ‘deep regret’ and the desire
to ‘deepen our friendship.” [Jewish Daily Forward, 29 August]
Jews in America are a force to be reckoned with despite their low
numbers. Jews are about 2% of the population, but 13% of the Senate
and 7% of the House are Jewish. Jewish voters are targeted in large
urban states by Democrats and Republicans. We all know that there are
numerous Jewish academics, scientists, economists, entrepreneurs,
writers and media personalities (on stage and behind the
scenes). Naturally, Jews like to bask in the glow of their
accomplishments. Equally, they must consider the consequences of
taking sides in questionable disputes that may have negative
consequences for America and/or Israel.
Despite the efforts of the leaders of most American Jewish
organizations, who understand what’s at stake for Israel vis a vis
Turkey, some damage has been done. A group of well-intentioned
American Jews have ignored realpolitik and succumbed to their liberal
tendency to "right wrongs". In this case, resolution 106 is tabled and
is therefore legally meaningless. Nevertheless, it has set the Turkish
government and the Turkish people against Israel for "legitimizing"
the genocide claims against Turks. American Jews need to use their
influence in a more sophisticated, calculating way than in this
instance. Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone.
Source: Article submitted by the author
Article to be posted in the S.J.J.T., 9 November 2007
Edited by IHC staff,
Published 8 November 2007