13:13,
YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS. For the world to ensure that the past atrocities do not happen again, we have to be clear about what they are. Israel needs to recognize the Armenian Genocide, according to the editorial in The Jerusalem Post.
The JPOST Editorial says “in Israel, though, despite being a country created just after the Holocaust, you won’t hear much about the Armenian Genocide”. “That is because the Jewish state – the home to the people who saw six million of their own exterminated by the Nazis – still does not officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. It is time for this to change”, the Jerusalem Post writes.
The editorial writes that there are already positive signals that this year US President Joe Biden will formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, although, it adds, this move will “infuriate Turkey and further strain already frayed ties between the two NATO allies”.
The JPOST Editorial reminded that in 2018 Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg proposed a bill to recognize the massacre as genocide, but the bill was canceled due to government resistance. A year later, a number of high-profile members of Knesset like Yair Lapid and Gideon Sa’ar voiced support for the move, but again it did not proceed due to little government support.
“Traditionally, the explanations for Israel’s failure to move on this have ranged from a need to leave a door open to better ties with Turkey to a clear government agenda that prefers Azerbaijan over Armenia. This was made clear this past fall, when Israel supplied weapons to Azerbaijan as it fought the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh.
One, though, does not have to come at the expense of the other. Yes, Israel has geopolitical considerations and those cannot be ignored, but it also has a moral imperative that it cannot simply brush off. As a people who have experienced genocide and persecution since its founding, the Jews have a responsibility to stand with other nations who go through similar atrocities”, according to the JPOST Editorial.
In the end the Editorial says the first step in ensuring “never again” is recognizing history as it was and making clear that what happened to the Armenians was in fact a genocide.
“There is no reason to fear Erdogan, who behaves like an antisemitic bully in the Middle East.
“Israel needs to recognize the Armenian Genocide. It is a simple bill. It is time the Knesset pass it”, the JPOST Editorial said.