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MAKING A PILGRIMAGE TO RWANDA TO REMEMBER THE GENOCIDE
New Jersey Jewish Standard
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/making_a_pilgrimage_to_rwanda_to_remember_the_geno cide/24013
Aug 3 2012
Does the road from Englewood to Washington run through Rwanda?
That would seem to be the question raised by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's
trip this week to Africa, with less than 100 days to go before he
faces Rep. Bill Pascrell in election for New Jersey's 9th Congressional
District.
But the long-time commentator and long-shot candidate is not looking to
raise campaign cash during his overseas travels, as did former Governor
Mitt Romney, who is expected to top Boteach on the Republican ballot
line and raised $50,000 a plate at a breakfast in Jerusalem last week.
Instead, Boteach said, "I promised myself that if I ever ran for public
office I would highlight genocide as one of the most important planks
in my platform."
Boteach told the Jewish Standard that the purpose of his trip to Rwanda
is "to highlight the 800,000 people who died there, amid complete
American inaction." That is the U.N. estimate of the number of Tutsi
- and some of their Hutu supporters - killed by Hutu in Rwanda over
the course of 100 days that began in April 1994.
Boteach long has been critical of the absence of American intervention
to stop the slaughter.
"America, the world's sole superpower, did actually nothing," he said.
"Not next to nothing, not almost nothing, actually nothing, to stop
a genocide they knew everything about. President Clinton did not have
a single meeting with his senior staff about it, not one."
Boteach said this week's trip was arranged with the help of his
daughter, a soldier in the Israeli army, who in that capacity recently
met the commander-in-chief of the Rwandan army. "His office has now
invited me to visit the country," Boteach said. "I plan to see all
the genocide sites."
The visit also coincides with commitments, arranged before he
launched his congressional run, to speak at Limmud, the Jewish studies
conference, which will meet in South Africa this weekend and next.
"The number one responsibility of anybody in power is to protect and
sustain human life," Boteach said. "This is my main foreign policy
plank: the American responsibility to protect the innocent. It may
not mean military intervention, though it has to be kept on the table."
During the Democratic primary, Pascrell was criticized by Armenian
groups for failing to adequately remember the genocide of Armenians
carried out by the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1915. Pascrell's
opponent, Rep. Steve Rothman, received the endorsement of the Armenian
National Committee of America.
According to the Massachusetts-based Armenian Weekly, "At times, Rep.
Pascrell has stood out as the only member of the New Jersey
Congressional delegation not to support Armenian American initiatives.
Moreover, instead of attending the annual Capitol Hill Armenian
Genocide commemoration, Congressman Pascrell was one of only a
few members to attend the opening of new offices for an Armenian
Genocide-denying organization, the Turkish Coalition of America."
Pascrell has been the mayor of Paterson, which reportedly is home to
the largest Turkish-American immigrant community in the country.
Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire and officially
denies that genocide took place.
New Jersey Jewish Standard
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/making_a_pilgrimage_to_rwanda_to_remember_the_geno cide/24013
Aug 3 2012
Does the road from Englewood to Washington run through Rwanda?
That would seem to be the question raised by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's
trip this week to Africa, with less than 100 days to go before he
faces Rep. Bill Pascrell in election for New Jersey's 9th Congressional
District.
But the long-time commentator and long-shot candidate is not looking to
raise campaign cash during his overseas travels, as did former Governor
Mitt Romney, who is expected to top Boteach on the Republican ballot
line and raised $50,000 a plate at a breakfast in Jerusalem last week.
Instead, Boteach said, "I promised myself that if I ever ran for public
office I would highlight genocide as one of the most important planks
in my platform."
Boteach told the Jewish Standard that the purpose of his trip to Rwanda
is "to highlight the 800,000 people who died there, amid complete
American inaction." That is the U.N. estimate of the number of Tutsi
- and some of their Hutu supporters - killed by Hutu in Rwanda over
the course of 100 days that began in April 1994.
Boteach long has been critical of the absence of American intervention
to stop the slaughter.
"America, the world's sole superpower, did actually nothing," he said.
"Not next to nothing, not almost nothing, actually nothing, to stop
a genocide they knew everything about. President Clinton did not have
a single meeting with his senior staff about it, not one."
Boteach said this week's trip was arranged with the help of his
daughter, a soldier in the Israeli army, who in that capacity recently
met the commander-in-chief of the Rwandan army. "His office has now
invited me to visit the country," Boteach said. "I plan to see all
the genocide sites."
The visit also coincides with commitments, arranged before he
launched his congressional run, to speak at Limmud, the Jewish studies
conference, which will meet in South Africa this weekend and next.
"The number one responsibility of anybody in power is to protect and
sustain human life," Boteach said. "This is my main foreign policy
plank: the American responsibility to protect the innocent. It may
not mean military intervention, though it has to be kept on the table."
During the Democratic primary, Pascrell was criticized by Armenian
groups for failing to adequately remember the genocide of Armenians
carried out by the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1915. Pascrell's
opponent, Rep. Steve Rothman, received the endorsement of the Armenian
National Committee of America.
According to the Massachusetts-based Armenian Weekly, "At times, Rep.
Pascrell has stood out as the only member of the New Jersey
Congressional delegation not to support Armenian American initiatives.
Moreover, instead of attending the annual Capitol Hill Armenian
Genocide commemoration, Congressman Pascrell was one of only a
few members to attend the opening of new offices for an Armenian
Genocide-denying organization, the Turkish Coalition of America."
Pascrell has been the mayor of Paterson, which reportedly is home to
the largest Turkish-American immigrant community in the country.
Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire and officially
denies that genocide took place.