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The Jewish Daily Forward
Dec 30 2011
Recognition of Suffering, Far Too Late
Israel Only Marks Armenian Genocide To Settle Turkey Score
By Larry Derfner
Published December 30, 2011, issue of January 06, 2012.
Israel is definitely making progress on the subject of the Armenian
genocide. In late December, during the Knesset's first ever open-door
debate on the issue, nobody was reported to have questioned whether
the deliberate killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-'16 should be
called a genocide, nor whether the Ottoman Empire was the guilty
party, nor whether modern-day Turkey inherited that guilt. For once,
all this was taken for granted, as it has been for decades by
virtually all historians, notably Holocaust and genocide historians.
`As a people and as a country, we stand and face the whole world with
the highest moral demand that Holocaust denial is something human
history cannot accept. Therefore, we cannot deny the tragedy of
others,' Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told the Education Committee.
Hear, hear. But this is a far cry from the position taken, for
instance, in 2001 by then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who told a
Turkish newspaper that the Armenian genocide was `a matter for
historians to decide,' and that Israel `reject[s] attempts to create a
similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations.'
No question, Israel has come a long way. When the U.S. Holocaust
Museum opened in 1993, Armenian-Americans lobbying for inclusion of
the Armenian genocide were met with a counter campaign organized by
Turkish officials and backed, according to museum officials, by the
efforts of the Israeli embassy.
For decades, official Israel not only `stood silent' about the
Armenian genocide, it deployed the American Jewish Committee,
Anti-Defamation League and other lobbying groups to back up White
House efforts to ensure that Congress stood silent, too. As late as
2007, the ADL fired a senior official for challenging Abraham Foxman's
opposition to a move in Congress for recognition of the genocide.
`Frankly, I'm pretty disgusted,' Yehuda Bauer, Israel's leading
Holocaust scholar, told me in 2005, when only a few academics and
liberal politicians were speaking out against Israel's role as
blocking back for Turkey's policy of denial. `I think that my
government preferred economic and political relations with Turkey to
the truth.'
That was then, but this is now, and now Israel's relations with Turkey
are ice cold, so there's a lot less to lose by recognizing the
Armenian genocide, and a great deal of satisfaction to be gained. `How
many times can they recall their ambassador?' Knesset Member Uri
Orbach pointed out.
Shameless hypocrisy, that's the only term for this Israeli spectacle.
The Knesset said nothing about the Armenian genocide all those years
when Israel wanted to preserve its alliance with Turkey, and now it
has the gall to pretend that it's raising the issue `so that no one in
the world will think [genocide] can happen again,' according to
Knesset Member Arye Eldad. The only Knesset members who come to this
issue with clean hands are those of Meretz, which over the years stood
alone among the political parties in demanding recognition of the
genocide and Turkey's culpability for it.
I don't know whose hypocrisy is worse - the Knesset's or that of the
Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry, which oppose
recognition on the grounds that it will cause more bad blood with
Turkey, something Israel doesn't need. National Security Adviser
Ya'akov Amidror reportedly told Israeli diplomats that now is the time
to `reduce tensions with Turkey, not pour more oil on the fire.'
Funny, but over the last two years, this consideration didn't deter
the government from 1) sitting the Turkish ambassador on a low chair
to humiliate him in front of the TV cameras; 2) commandeering the
Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on its way to Gaza, which ended with the
killings of nine Turks aboard; 3) refusing to apologize for the
killings; and 4) just this last Thursday, canceling a $141 million
sale to Turkey of air force intelligence equipment.
Each of those moves was apparently worth deepening the rift with
Turkey. But not an attempt to end Israel's collusion in the denial of
the 20th century's first genocide, whose early disappearance from
history was cited by Hitler as proof that he could get away with a
genocide of his own.
In the end, though, I agree with the Prime Minister's Office and
Foreign Ministry: Israel should not do a 180-degree turn and suddenly
recognize the Armenian genocide, especially not now. Like this week's
`historic' Knesset hearing, it would be too transparently false, too
embarrassing.
Israel has stood silent this long; let it remain silent.
http://forward.com/articles/148750/
Dec 30 2011
Recognition of Suffering, Far Too Late
Israel Only Marks Armenian Genocide To Settle Turkey Score
By Larry Derfner
Published December 30, 2011, issue of January 06, 2012.
Israel is definitely making progress on the subject of the Armenian
genocide. In late December, during the Knesset's first ever open-door
debate on the issue, nobody was reported to have questioned whether
the deliberate killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-'16 should be
called a genocide, nor whether the Ottoman Empire was the guilty
party, nor whether modern-day Turkey inherited that guilt. For once,
all this was taken for granted, as it has been for decades by
virtually all historians, notably Holocaust and genocide historians.
`As a people and as a country, we stand and face the whole world with
the highest moral demand that Holocaust denial is something human
history cannot accept. Therefore, we cannot deny the tragedy of
others,' Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin told the Education Committee.
Hear, hear. But this is a far cry from the position taken, for
instance, in 2001 by then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who told a
Turkish newspaper that the Armenian genocide was `a matter for
historians to decide,' and that Israel `reject[s] attempts to create a
similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations.'
No question, Israel has come a long way. When the U.S. Holocaust
Museum opened in 1993, Armenian-Americans lobbying for inclusion of
the Armenian genocide were met with a counter campaign organized by
Turkish officials and backed, according to museum officials, by the
efforts of the Israeli embassy.
For decades, official Israel not only `stood silent' about the
Armenian genocide, it deployed the American Jewish Committee,
Anti-Defamation League and other lobbying groups to back up White
House efforts to ensure that Congress stood silent, too. As late as
2007, the ADL fired a senior official for challenging Abraham Foxman's
opposition to a move in Congress for recognition of the genocide.
`Frankly, I'm pretty disgusted,' Yehuda Bauer, Israel's leading
Holocaust scholar, told me in 2005, when only a few academics and
liberal politicians were speaking out against Israel's role as
blocking back for Turkey's policy of denial. `I think that my
government preferred economic and political relations with Turkey to
the truth.'
That was then, but this is now, and now Israel's relations with Turkey
are ice cold, so there's a lot less to lose by recognizing the
Armenian genocide, and a great deal of satisfaction to be gained. `How
many times can they recall their ambassador?' Knesset Member Uri
Orbach pointed out.
Shameless hypocrisy, that's the only term for this Israeli spectacle.
The Knesset said nothing about the Armenian genocide all those years
when Israel wanted to preserve its alliance with Turkey, and now it
has the gall to pretend that it's raising the issue `so that no one in
the world will think [genocide] can happen again,' according to
Knesset Member Arye Eldad. The only Knesset members who come to this
issue with clean hands are those of Meretz, which over the years stood
alone among the political parties in demanding recognition of the
genocide and Turkey's culpability for it.
I don't know whose hypocrisy is worse - the Knesset's or that of the
Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry, which oppose
recognition on the grounds that it will cause more bad blood with
Turkey, something Israel doesn't need. National Security Adviser
Ya'akov Amidror reportedly told Israeli diplomats that now is the time
to `reduce tensions with Turkey, not pour more oil on the fire.'
Funny, but over the last two years, this consideration didn't deter
the government from 1) sitting the Turkish ambassador on a low chair
to humiliate him in front of the TV cameras; 2) commandeering the
Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on its way to Gaza, which ended with the
killings of nine Turks aboard; 3) refusing to apologize for the
killings; and 4) just this last Thursday, canceling a $141 million
sale to Turkey of air force intelligence equipment.
Each of those moves was apparently worth deepening the rift with
Turkey. But not an attempt to end Israel's collusion in the denial of
the 20th century's first genocide, whose early disappearance from
history was cited by Hitler as proof that he could get away with a
genocide of his own.
In the end, though, I agree with the Prime Minister's Office and
Foreign Ministry: Israel should not do a 180-degree turn and suddenly
recognize the Armenian genocide, especially not now. Like this week's
`historic' Knesset hearing, it would be too transparently false, too
embarrassing.
Israel has stood silent this long; let it remain silent.
http://forward.com/articles/148750/