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MASSACHUSETTS IS NO PLACE FOR SWASTIKAS OR ADL HYPOCRISY
By David Boyajian
The Belmont Citizen Herald
10 December 2008
Who has done more harm: the scoundrel who recently committed the
senseless, criminal act of spray-painting a swastika on a Newton
synagogue; or the national Anti-Defamation League, which has long
diminished and denied the Armenian genocide and lobbied alongside
Turkey to stop the U.S. from recognizing that genocide? I suggest
the latter.
Last year Belmont and Newton severed ties with the No Place for
Hate (NPFH) program of the ADL due to the latter's actions against
Armenians.
Many Massachusetts cities, including Belmont, have occasionally
experienced swastika spray-painting defacements. But the ADL is taking
blatant advantage of the Newton incident.
Summoning up the ghost of NPFH, the ADL has declared that Newton is
"not a place for hate" and used other rhetoric to try to recoup its
lost standing.
Though the Newton incident was atrocious, the ADL lacks the
credibility to lecture anyone about hate. The ADL maintains that
denial, diminishment, or any questioning of the Holocaust constitutes
anti-Semitism and "hate." By its own standards, therefore, the ADL
is guilty of hate regarding the Armenian genocide. It's also clearly
guilty of major hypocrisy.
Arlington, Bedford, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport,
Northamp ton, Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, Westwood have, like
Belmont and Newton, castigated the national ADL and dropped NPFH. So
did the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents every
city and town. Human rights advocates, many of them Jewish, have also
condemned the ADL's stance against Armenians.
And Watertown has now demanded that Blue Cross Blue Shield stop
sponsoring NPFH. Top ADL officers inside the company had persuaded
it several years ago to fund the program.
And, no, the national ADL and director Abraham Foxman have not
unambiguously acknowledged the Armenian genocide. Quite the opposite.
Pressed by human rights advocates and Armenians, the national ADL
issued a statement on August 21, 2007 that, while it mentioned
the word genocide, implied that the Armenian murders were simply a
"consequence" of war and, therefore, not intentional. The ADL knows
that "consequential" deaths are not genocide. The official definition
of genocide in Article 2 of the U.N. Genocide Treaty specifically
requires "intent" by the perpetrator. Imagine the ferocious ADL
reaction if an Armenian group implied that the Holocaust was simply a
"consequence" of WWII.
The ADL's slickly worded genocide denial was a blatant demonstration
of bad faith. And it didn't fool the MMA and the dozen cities that
subsequently cut ties to NPFH. The ADL stateme nt has never - never -
been retracted.
Foxman has recently started another word game, saying that he has
"referred" to the Armenian genocide. The ADL condemns word games
with the Holocaust but then plays the same games with the Armenian
holocaust.
The powerful ADL has long lobbied against Armenian genocide resolutions
in Congress. Imagine how the ADL would have screamed bloody murder if
an Armenian organization had lobbied against any of the innumerable
pieces of Holocaust legislation.
The ADL's seemingly inexplicable opposition to Armenians is part of
a widely acknowledged deal between Turkey and Israel.
"The Jewish lobby has quite actively supported Turkey," notes Yola
Habif Johnston of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
"to prevent the so-called Armenian genocide resolution from passing."
The American Jewish Committee is one of the groups she cited. Grilled
earlier this year about the Armenian issue, AJC's Strategic Studies
Director, Barry Jacobs, blurted out, "We are not historians, which is a
polite [expletive] way of saying we're not going to take responsibility
[or] make a decision on 1915." Added Jacobs, "The position of all the
Jewish organizations, including the ADL, was not to have a position
on the facts ... we do not think that the Congress is the place to
settle this ... that's the real world and that's the position of the
U.S. and Israel."
Jacobs once appeared in a nasty, Turkish-sponsored genocide denial
film and has pledged to "champion to the best of our ability Turkish
interests in the U.S. Congress."
However, the American Jewish World Service, American Jewish League for
Israel, Jewish War Veterans of the USA, and a dozen other principled
Jewish groups support the Armenian resolution. So do the NAACP,
Sons of Italy, Nat'l Council of La Raza, NOW, American Values, Arab
American Institute, Cambodian Assoc. of America, Int'l Campaign for
Tibet, Christian Solidarity Int'l, National Council of Churches,
and some 70 more organizations.
But not the ADL. Foxman is loath to back out of his deal with Turkey.
It's clear that the main ADL agenda is political wheeling and dealing
and not, as claimed, universal human rights. The public and ADL's
principled grassroots members have been misled.
The national ADL's stance against Armenians lends credence to
those who accuse it and groups like AJC of exploiting the Holocaust
for political purposes and of being insincere about others' human
rights. That is a far greater disservice to Jews and humanity than
any spray-painted swastika.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
By David Boyajian
The Belmont Citizen Herald
10 December 2008
Who has done more harm: the scoundrel who recently committed the
senseless, criminal act of spray-painting a swastika on a Newton
synagogue; or the national Anti-Defamation League, which has long
diminished and denied the Armenian genocide and lobbied alongside
Turkey to stop the U.S. from recognizing that genocide? I suggest
the latter.
Last year Belmont and Newton severed ties with the No Place for
Hate (NPFH) program of the ADL due to the latter's actions against
Armenians.
Many Massachusetts cities, including Belmont, have occasionally
experienced swastika spray-painting defacements. But the ADL is taking
blatant advantage of the Newton incident.
Summoning up the ghost of NPFH, the ADL has declared that Newton is
"not a place for hate" and used other rhetoric to try to recoup its
lost standing.
Though the Newton incident was atrocious, the ADL lacks the
credibility to lecture anyone about hate. The ADL maintains that
denial, diminishment, or any questioning of the Holocaust constitutes
anti-Semitism and "hate." By its own standards, therefore, the ADL
is guilty of hate regarding the Armenian genocide. It's also clearly
guilty of major hypocrisy.
Arlington, Bedford, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport,
Northamp ton, Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, Westwood have, like
Belmont and Newton, castigated the national ADL and dropped NPFH. So
did the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents every
city and town. Human rights advocates, many of them Jewish, have also
condemned the ADL's stance against Armenians.
And Watertown has now demanded that Blue Cross Blue Shield stop
sponsoring NPFH. Top ADL officers inside the company had persuaded
it several years ago to fund the program.
And, no, the national ADL and director Abraham Foxman have not
unambiguously acknowledged the Armenian genocide. Quite the opposite.
Pressed by human rights advocates and Armenians, the national ADL
issued a statement on August 21, 2007 that, while it mentioned
the word genocide, implied that the Armenian murders were simply a
"consequence" of war and, therefore, not intentional. The ADL knows
that "consequential" deaths are not genocide. The official definition
of genocide in Article 2 of the U.N. Genocide Treaty specifically
requires "intent" by the perpetrator. Imagine the ferocious ADL
reaction if an Armenian group implied that the Holocaust was simply a
"consequence" of WWII.
The ADL's slickly worded genocide denial was a blatant demonstration
of bad faith. And it didn't fool the MMA and the dozen cities that
subsequently cut ties to NPFH. The ADL stateme nt has never - never -
been retracted.
Foxman has recently started another word game, saying that he has
"referred" to the Armenian genocide. The ADL condemns word games
with the Holocaust but then plays the same games with the Armenian
holocaust.
The powerful ADL has long lobbied against Armenian genocide resolutions
in Congress. Imagine how the ADL would have screamed bloody murder if
an Armenian organization had lobbied against any of the innumerable
pieces of Holocaust legislation.
The ADL's seemingly inexplicable opposition to Armenians is part of
a widely acknowledged deal between Turkey and Israel.
"The Jewish lobby has quite actively supported Turkey," notes Yola
Habif Johnston of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
"to prevent the so-called Armenian genocide resolution from passing."
The American Jewish Committee is one of the groups she cited. Grilled
earlier this year about the Armenian issue, AJC's Strategic Studies
Director, Barry Jacobs, blurted out, "We are not historians, which is a
polite [expletive] way of saying we're not going to take responsibility
[or] make a decision on 1915." Added Jacobs, "The position of all the
Jewish organizations, including the ADL, was not to have a position
on the facts ... we do not think that the Congress is the place to
settle this ... that's the real world and that's the position of the
U.S. and Israel."
Jacobs once appeared in a nasty, Turkish-sponsored genocide denial
film and has pledged to "champion to the best of our ability Turkish
interests in the U.S. Congress."
However, the American Jewish World Service, American Jewish League for
Israel, Jewish War Veterans of the USA, and a dozen other principled
Jewish groups support the Armenian resolution. So do the NAACP,
Sons of Italy, Nat'l Council of La Raza, NOW, American Values, Arab
American Institute, Cambodian Assoc. of America, Int'l Campaign for
Tibet, Christian Solidarity Int'l, National Council of Churches,
and some 70 more organizations.
But not the ADL. Foxman is loath to back out of his deal with Turkey.
It's clear that the main ADL agenda is political wheeling and dealing
and not, as claimed, universal human rights. The public and ADL's
principled grassroots members have been misled.
The national ADL's stance against Armenians lends credence to
those who accuse it and groups like AJC of exploiting the Holocaust
for political purposes and of being insincere about others' human
rights. That is a far greater disservice to Jews and humanity than
any spray-painted swastika.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress