CONFRONTING THE DENIALIST JEWISH LOBBY: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?
By David Boyajian
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April 1, 2009
By any objective measure, the two-year-old campaign against the
Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) denial of the Armenian Genocide has
been a spectacular success. The ADL, the Jewish American community,
Israel, and Turkey were taken by surprise and shaken to their
roots. As shockwaves from the campaign spread, Turkey’s ambassador
to Israel cut short his vacation to return to Tel Aviv to complain
to Israeli leaders.
Grassroots Armenians in Massachusetts have flexed, and continue
to flex, their political muscles as never before, targeting the
Massachusetts Municipal Association and the elected officials and
human rights commissions of 14 cities: Arlington, Bedford, Belmont,
Easton, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport, Newton, Northampton,
Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, and Westwood.
As a result, they have all ceased sponsoring No Place for Hate (NPFH),
the alleged anti-bias program created, trademarked, and funded by
the ADL.
Successful Results
Among campaigns initiated by Armenian Americans, only the Congressional
genocide resolution has generated more exposure and controversy.
The campaign has spawned thousands of news reports, editorials,
commentaries, radio interviews, and letters in non-Armenian media in
the U.S. and around the world.
The battle against the ADL and NPFH has underscored to non-Armenians
that the genocide issue directly affects them, their cities, and
their schools.
Armenian Americans now have a louder voice in their communities. And
those who deny the genocide have been put further on the defensive.
Exposing the ADL’s holocaust hypocrisy reportedly helped to push the
House Foreign Affairs Committee into approving the Armenian Genocide
Resolution two years ago.
The campaign is the main reason why recent news reports on the
strained relations between Turkey and Israel refer to the Jewish
lobby’s collusion with Turkey in genocide denial.
Other denialists, such as the American Jewish Committee and B’nai
B’rith, have also been exposed.
Armenian Leaders Fall Short
Sadly, outside Massachusetts, Armenians and lobbying organizations such
as the Armenian National Committee of America and Armenian Assembly
of America have done little to defend Armenians and others against
the ADL’s denialism and programs. This is a major failure.
Even in Massachusetts, the Armenians who have been fighting the ADL
are mostly grassroots activists and several ANCA leaders. With rare
exceptions, our so-called Armenian leaders in politics, academia,
business, journalism, law, medicine, and the Church have remained
shamefully silent and uninvolved. The reasons? Laziness and, in my
opinion, an unwarranted fear of criticizing a Jewish organization.
The fact is that the Massachusetts campaign has drawn enormous support
from non-Armenians, many of them Jews: human rights commission members,
city officials, journalists, academicians, and more.
Armenians must not permit genocide denial, whether by a Turkish,
Jewish, or any other kind of group.
The ADL and America
As Americans, Armenians have a wider responsibility to expose the ADL
and similar organizations that falsely claim to espouse "human rights."
ADL programs besides NPFH, such as World of Difference (WOD), have
infiltrated thousands of cities, workplaces, law enforcement agencies,
and public schools, the latter often attended by Armenian American
children.
When Glendale’s Hoover High issued an invitation to WOD, the Armenian
community put a stop to it, but only-only-because it was aware of the
campaign in Massachusetts. WOD even tried to penetrate St. Stephen’s
Armenian Elementary School in Watertown.
Were it not so damaging to society, it would be laughable that an
organization that conspires with Turkey to cover up mass murder is
strong-arming countless American citizens-children, teachers, workers,
law enforcement officers, and ordinary citizens-into its "anti-hate"
and "tolerance" training programs.
Some ADL members who conduct these programs may be well
intentioned. But the national ADL leadership is not. It is clear,
particularly given its collusion with Turkey, that the ADL is a
political, not a civil or human rights, group. Its "human rights"
programs are a cover-a way to influence and buy unsuspecting Americans
who will later support, or at least not criticize, the ADL’s foreign
and domestic agenda.
Incredibly, ADL agents have also conducted illegal surveillance of
African Americans, Latinos, labor unions, and others. The police
chief of Arlington, Mass., has even admitted that the ADL provides
police with investigative intelligence that they cannot legally
obtain themselves.
One can surmise, therefore, that the ADL may operate covertly against
Armenian Americans.
Continuing the Campaign
There are compelling moral and practical reasons why Armenians must
continue this campaign.
Human rights experts say that the Armenian Genocide was-and denial of
any genocide is-an offense against humankind as a whole. All people,
therefore, Armenians included, have a responsibility to confront
denialists.
Even Israelis acknowledge that Israeli-Turkish accords include an
unwritten proviso that top Jewish lobbying groups such as the ADL
work against Armenians on virtually every issue of concern to Armenian
Americans, such as military aid to Azerbaijan and Turkey.
According to political analyst Harut Sassounian, for example, AJC
and B’nai B’rith officials issued "a public pledge to help enact
pro-Azeri and pro-Turkish legislation and counter Armenian and Greek
initiatives in the U.S. Congress."
Exposing the holocaust hypocrisy of the ADL and other organizations
reduces their credibility and, therefore, their ability to damage
Armenian American interests.
Even locally, ADL members have worked against Armenian interests. A
top ADL officer and well-connected Boston figure, Peter Meade, has made
himself the main opponent of the proposed Armenian Heritage Park-which
includes a genocide plaque-on Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Will Armenian Americans confront organizations that harm not just
their interests, but also those of the wider American society? In
Massachusetts, yes. Elsewhere, it remains to be seen.