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  • Beware the Hornet's Nest

    Beware the Hornet's Nest

    Editorial 5-24-2014
    By Edmond Y. Azadian


    Armenian-Jewish relations have a very special significance and are
    expressed in a variety of dimensions. The basic tenet that binds the
    two groups is falling victim to mass murder. The two groups understand
    each other and they are poised better than other groups to empathize
    with each other, having experienced the horrors of ethnic cleansing or
    extermination.

    However, those relations may manifest in many different ways when
    political considerations weigh in. The fact that the state of Israel
    is not among the 20-some nations that that have recognized the
    Armenian Genocide is a sore point in those relations. But the saving
    grace is that bona fide scholars and legislators in Israel articulate
    better than any other group Israel's moral obligation to recognize the
    Armenian Genocide in the face of political expediency.

    It does not take a conspiratorial mind to observe the influence of
    Israel and its lobbying arm in the US and in this country's
    legislature. Therefore, as the Armenians take up the challenge of
    extracting Genocide recognition from the US government, first and
    foremost, they have to capitalize on the sympathies of these lobbying
    groups.

    Also, it is an important factor to harmonize and coordinate Armenian
    interests with the political interests of those groups. Working at
    cross-purposes guarantees defeat.

    In recent years, a controversy has been introduced in these delicate
    relations, that of the Armenian Genocide policy of the Anti-Defamation
    League (ADL), reflected mainly in the actions and words of its
    national director, Abraham Foxman.

    A vigorous campaign was conducted mostly in New England and to a
    smaller extent, nationally, to expose the ADL's active participation
    with Turkey in defeating all resolutions in the US Congress
    recognizing the Armenian Genocide. That campaign yielded some positive
    results, especially in discrediting the ADL's anti-bias program, No
    Place for Hate, as a hypocritical façade for the organization's
    disingenuous and active campaign against other human rights causes,
    including the Armenian Genocide.

    Certainly it was an indirect victory when on the eve of the 2014
    Genocide memorial day, the American Jewish Committee released an
    unequivocal statement of support, which said, in part, "In a month of
    solemn remembrance of the atrocities of the last century -- from the
    20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide to the annual commemoration
    in Israel and the Untied States of the Holocaust -- we pause in
    mournful tribute to the memories of the estimated 1.5 million victims
    of the Medz Yeghern, the genocide of the Armenians, committed in the
    final years of the Ottoman Empire."

    We may also consider partial victory in defeating the nomination of
    Joseph Berman by Gov. Deval Patrick to the Massachusetts Superior
    Court as a result of a sustained and well-orchestrated campaign,
    although Mr. Berman's case was only tangentially germane to the
    Genocide issue. A number of negative factors were used against his
    nomination: his lack of criminal experience, slight knowledge of drug
    issues, his attempts to buy political influence through hefty campaign
    contributions and his representation of a Guantanamo inmate. Perhaps
    his affiliation with the ADL was the straw that broke the camel's
    back.

    The campaign against the ADL and its leader, Foxman, has not abated
    for the last few years. On the contrary, it has been gaining momentum,
    which culminated in the confrontation between the Ad Hoc Greater
    Boston Committee for Human Rights and the Suffolk University
    Administration. Mr. Foxman was invited to deliver the commencement
    address at Suffolk Law School graduation. The protest against Mr.
    Foxman's presence began in April by Suffolk's student chapter of the
    National Lawyers' Guild. The main reason for the initiative was Mr.
    Foxman's and the ADL's long-standing collusion with Turkey, a major
    human rights violator, in campaigning to defeat US congressional
    resolutions on the Armenian Genocide.

    Anti-Foxman actions also included a call to Sen. Edward Markey (D-Ma),
    another invitee to the Suffolk ceremony, to boycott the affair.

    It was a valiant campaign and an effective exercise of political
    activism, which unfortunately did not achieve its intended results.
    Mr. Foxman delivered his commencement address, and was awarded an
    honorary Juris Doctor degree. And in the melee, he also referenced the
    Armenian Genocide.

    But the defeat will be more instructive if we are prepared to study
    its lessons. Mr. Foxman would not have stood behind the podium had the
    Suffolk administration not felt strong on its grounds. It looks also
    as if this campaign has reached its point of saturation. In economics
    and in politics, there is something called a law of diminished
    returns, which warns us not to overstep our boundaries. The fact that
    some Jews have also joined the anti-ADL and anti-Foxman campaign
    indicates that some internal policy issues or personal quarrels are
    involved, which may entangle the Armenians unnecessarily.

    Mr. Foxman is a power broker in Washington and the ADL is equally
    powerful and no Armenian organization can match their influence should
    push come to shove.

    The writing is already on the wall; on May 13, 2014, the ADL issued a
    statement trying to clarify its position on the Armenian Genocide.
    However, the angry tone of the statement is more of a warning than an
    apology or clarification. By reiterating its statement of August 22,
    2008, the new statement says, "We are deeply concerned by ongoing
    questions about our organization's position with regard to the
    Armenian Genocide. The ADL has never denied the tragic and painful
    events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians and we
    have referred to those massacres as genocide. All of the ADL's
    anti-hate programs classify genocide as the ultimate crime against
    humanity."

    Although there is an explicit acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide,
    there is no denial of Mr. Foxman's or the ADL's active role against
    Armenian Genocide resolutions in Congress. Instead, there is a stern
    warning which should be taken very seriously: "There is simply no
    basis for the false accusation that we engage in any form of denial
    and we believe this characterization of the ADL crosses the boundary
    of acceptable criticism into the category of demonization."

    A more ominous echo comes all the way from Jerusalem. Normally the
    press in Israel is very favorable to the Armenian cause but an article
    published in the Jerusalem Post on May 18 by a novice called Tal
    Buenos is vitriolic. Under the title of "Abraham Foxman's Good Name,"
    the writer not only defends his mentor but also attacks virulently the
    basic facts of the Armenian Genocide, generously borrowing words and
    statements from the official Turkish denialist lexicon.

    One of the writer's laughable statements goes like this: "Foxman is
    not a denier. He has never refused to recognize existing facts about
    the Armenian tragedy of World War I. On the contrary, he has expressed
    genuine interest in learning more facts about what has happened."

    If Mr. Foxman has yet to learn the facts about the Armenian Genocide
    after 126 Holocaust and Genocide scholars affirmed the
    incontrovertible fact of the Armenian Genocide on June 6, 2007, it is
    too late for him to catch up. Besides, if he does not have all the
    facts about the issue, why is he campaigning against a cause that he
    does not know enough about?

    It is very difficult to isolate a single quote statement from Mr.
    Buenos' article, because he offers many gems. The following statement
    seems to have been borrowed from Prof. Ahmet Davutoglu's history
    lessons: "It is only through the study of authentic documents that one
    may formulate an informed opinion on whether the Ottoman government
    acted with the intention to destroy the Armenian people -- as the
    genocide label would warrant --or in consideration of wartime
    necessities to clear vulnerable areas within its territory of a
    population whose leaders were colluding with the enemy."

    Mr. Buenos, as a PhD candidate in political science, does not have
    enough sense that his same argument may turn against him and may be
    used by unscrupulous people in the Holocaust narrative.

    One scathing view is the following: "In a dramatic twist, the term
    genocide has become a burden on the memory of the Holocaust."

    Then he continues his denials by upholding the uniqueness of the
    Holocaust and accuses the Armenians of the very sin that he is in the
    process of committing: that the Armenians are politicizing the
    Genocide agenda.

    Ironically, there is not much about Mr. Foxman in the entire article,
    which seems to have been ordered by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

    With Israel's participation, the confrontation has been turning very
    ugly and certainly counterproductive. The debate must not pit Jews
    against Armenians, genocide against the Holocaust, because then we
    will be the certain losers.

    Spearheading a political movement is healthy. The fact that we do not
    generate enough mobilization undermines the strength of the leaders.
    Comparing and contrasting the Genocide and the Holocaust is a
    dangerous game. Each case should be analyzed based on their own
    circumstances. Otherwise, the exercise undermines the moral foundation
    of each case. Both have to be elevated to a universal realm in order
    to uphold their lessons for a global audience.

    There is an old saying in Armenian which is still topical: Sahman
    kachats zenen yuriants, in the classical Armenian, which literally
    means, the boundary of the valiants is the extent of their weapons.
    Interpreted, it says that overextension may be counter productive but
    above all, let's not stir the hornet's nest.


    http://www.mirrorspectator.com/current-issue/

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