BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
In last week’s large-scale attack on Artsakh (Karabakh), the Azeri military killed and injured dozens of Armenian soldiers and civilians, using the sophisticated weapons purchased from Israel and Russia for billions of dollars.
The Armenian government and Armenians worldwide accused both Israel and Russia of responsibility for the innocent Armenian lives lost in the recent Azeri invasion.
Prof. Israel Charny, a righteous Jew and a staunch defender of human rights, could not remain silent knowing that his country — Israel — had a bloody role in the Armenian killings. As Executive Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, Dr. Charny sent a scathing commentary to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, under the provocative title: “Would Israel Sell a Used Drone to a Hitler?” Here is what he wrote:
“If the Nazis were not at all murdering Jews but ‘only’ were murdering say hated Slavs, Gypsies, and Jehovah’s Witnesses; and if our beloved State of Israel were in existence; would you agree to our selling arms to the Nazis?
“Israel is reported to have sold billions of dollars of arms including to governments that are killing or threatening to attack victim peoples. Last week, there came reports that an Israeli drone in the hands of Azerbaijan — a huge arms customer of ours — was responsible for the deaths of six Armenians in the Armenian enclave Nagorno Karabakh.
“I am ashamed!
“The Armenians were the victims of a major genocide 100 years ago that has even been called the ‘Armenian Shoah’ by some Israeli scholars, including from Bar Ilan University. A great deal of their national and cultural concern continues to focus passionately on the memory of that genocide (does that sound familiar to us Jews?). For many years now, we Israelis — whether led by Labor or Likud — have insulted and hurt the Armenian people by failing to recognize their genocide officially and formally. Would we ourselves tolerate another government — say the U.S. or England — failing to recognize the Holocaust because of their realpolitik interest with the perpetrator government?
“One senior Armenian official has written several of us in Israel to express his deep pain as well as indignation now not only at our cowardly and self-serving denials of the Armenian Genocide, but also at our thick military trade alliance with Azerbaijan. I am reminded of the prophet Nathan crying out to King David for an earlier though more delectable murderous act of self-interest: It’s bad enough that you killed him, are you also taking a profit from the sordid affair? The Azeris are a Turkic people who adhere to Turkey’s bizarre and fascist tradition of rewriting history and denying the Armenian Genocide.
“In general, how much do we Israelis want to strengthen our economy by lucrative arms sales? Of course, ‘everyone’ in the world is doing it, but do we have to also? Have we given up the image/dream of Israel as a moral leader of peoples on this planet? Is this idea tiresome, naïve, and childlike in a madly destructive and self-destroying world?
“An alternative concept could be that along with our building arms first and foremost for the defense of Israel, that we sell — or contribute — arms only to underdog peoples who are facing mass destruction, and/or to allies like the U.S., who are essentially committed to shared democratic values and peace. Of course, we will still be making some mistakes, but at least our conscience will be more clear that we have not delivered used arms to the ‘Nazis.’
“To my Armenian colleagues and friends, I can only say that as a Jew and as an Israeli, I am mortified — and angry.”
Prof. Charny’s harsh words are fully justified as both Israeli and Russian officials have shamefully pledged to continue shipping more weapons to Azerbaijan!
Dr. Charny has never shied away from expressing his critical views on Israel’s immoral policies on Armenian issues. In a scathing letter in 2001, he told Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres: “You have gone beyond a moral boundary that no Jew should allow himself to trespass…. As a Jew and an Israeli, I am ashamed of the extent to which you have now entered into the range of actual denial of the Armenian Genocide, comparable to denials of the Holocaust.”
Prof. Charny should be highly commended for his bold and righteous stand, taking to task the callous leaders of his own country!
For many years the Jews are our enemies disguised as good Samaritans.Armenians should be very careful with them forever.
What about brotherly Russia selling…uhhh? At least, Israel doesn’t go round telling everyone how close they are to Armenia.
Armenians & Azeris MUST settle their differences.There is nothing we in the US can do if Russia were to say “this fighting on our border endangers Russian security, we have decided to make an end of this violence that threatens to bring the whole region into conflict.” Russia, in violation of virtually all reasonable notions of international law, conquered the Crimean peninsula, which Russia had agreed in writing was part of Ukraine. Somehow that recent event has become ancient history. May heaven work to protect the independence of Armenia & Azerbaijan & to bring peace to both of you.
Instead of telling Armenians to “settle our differences” with your genocidal Azeri buddies, and instead of spreading tired lies about Russia, how about you go and protest the genocide of Palestinians at the hands of Israel?
Thank you Prof. I. Charney, we wish you long and healthy life for being such an exemplary human being.
Prof. Israel Charny, Thank You.
what does Armenia’s ministry of foreign affairs do(if it is Armenia’s)
Just likes Western powers, Jews are after the money. Morality does not play in today’s world, it never has!
Israel knowingly, deliberately and with enthusiasm supports the Denial of the Armenian Genocide
Israel knows very well azerbaijan & turkey are both responsible for mass killings of Armenians, and continue with destruction of our cultural heritage in our lands sto9len by them, yet Israel openly, ENTHUSIASTICALLY sells advanced arms to turks so as they can destroy us
Israel was nevr a moral leader nor will it ever be a moral leader on this Earth, they are a self serving lot, and continue to oppress and treat Palestenians EXACTLY the way they were treated in the Ghettos, Isrtael is the worst Apartheid state on this planet and its time Armenians globally stand up and use our efforts to fight this dangerous zionist cancer that is destroying the world with its devious and treacherous tactics.
In Europe and the West the Jews are the leading advocates of Human rights, Anti Hate legislation’s, the likes of Abe Foxman in US live a fake double life to promote Jewish interests under the guise of anti hate laws.
How come none of these wonderful movements NEVER EVER condemn the horrific treatment of Palestinians in Israel who live life like a large concentration camp..
Enough is Enough we must stand up and take the fight to them, otherwise they may just achieve their ancient desire to destroy us as they consider us the descendants of the Amalakites..
Well, I’m usually the odd duck out, so why change now. I see an opportunity here. While you’all condemn Israel for their enterprise, I hope to God that some enterprising group in Armenia or even Artsack, is reverse engineering those unexploded Kamikaze drones, so we can manufacture and sell them in the thousands to anyone with money. Except for the Azery Tatars, they should get them for free, daily, in even retaliation for cross border sniping.
Armenia doesn’t need a billion dollar air force. With drone technology, self guiding Airplane seeking kamikaze drones pretty much exes out Azery and even Turkish air superiority. Battlefield Drones that seek and destroy enemy Tanks, Enemy formations, supply columns, or any other sinister play, are the way of the future. That’s why it’s important to immerse the youth of today in electronic games that have subliminally trained future generations of pilots and battlefield tacticians for the US armed forces. Remote controlled armed drones are so successful, and so accurate that in sufficient numbers can overwhelm enemy formations and infrastructure. Produced from carbon fiber, or even wood, they are impervious to existing radar and anti aircraft missiles.
There are occasionally some decent Jews who take a sympathetic stand with Armenia, usually ideologically motivated people like Noam Chomsky, or the local leadership of the Boston branch of the Anti-Defamation League who protested against their organizations denial of the Armenian Genocide in 2008 and eventually forced ADL Director Abe Foxman to slightly change the official view (from outright denial to “1915 events were ‘tantamount’ to genocide”). So I do not want to claim that I hate all Jews. Nor do I want anyone to think I am calling out Jews because of their physical appearance, their social customs, the horrendous animal cruelty involved in kosher slaughter, their ongoing genocide of ethnic Palestinians (of course I strongly condemn the occupation and genocide of Palestine), or because I am “jealous” of Jewish successes, or the problems Jews have with other races in Europe and the Middle East.
I am only calling out the Jews – and by extension those Armenians who are pro-Jewish – because Jews are engaged in a war against Armenia. The fact of the matter is that all of the powerful and influential Jews, those Jews who lead the Jewish communities, Zionism, and Israel, have a long history of being extremely anti-Armenian and pro-Turkish, and recently they have been doing lobbying work for Azerbaijan against Armenia and Artsakh. Let’s not kid ourselves; the public figures who say or publish the most extreme anti-Armenian bigotry other than actual Turks and Azeris are almost always Jews. Not Russians, not French, not Japanese, not Rwandan, always Jews who hold prominent positions in their Jewish communities. This is not something we can overlook; it is a direct attack against Armenia by a race which also claims to have been a victim of genocide and always pulls out the “never again” card when it suits them politically. It is a direct attack against Armenian Artsakh by a nation which also claims to have been forced to defend itself from “aggressive, genocidal, imperialist, Islamist” neighbors just to defend its right to exist.
Below is a partial list I have compiled of major Jewish figures who are anti-Armenian. Many of them are “journalists” who have published anti-Armenian propaganda. The list is only the tip of the iceberg, which stretches far back throughout history.
-abraham foxman (anti-defamation league of b’nai b’rith)
-brenda schaffer (israeli scholar, past president of american political acience association, former research director of the Caspian studies program at harvard’s kennedy school of government, current faculty at the israeli university of haifa in the school of political science, and a visiting professor at the azerbaijan diplomatic academy and at georgetown university in washington, d.c.)
-shimon peres (president and former prime minister of israel)
-guenter lewy (professor emeritus at the university of massachusetts amherst)
-bernard lewis (cleveland e. dodge professor emeritus of near eastern studies at princeton university)
-bruce fein (attorney, worked for the turkish coalition of America, the american enterprise institute and the heritage foundation, the assembly of turkish american associations court case against Mourad Topalian in 2001, the lawyer of fellow jew guenter lewy against the southern poverty law center regarding the Armenian Genocide, lawyer of u.s. house of representatives member jean schmidt against David Krikorian, lawyer for the turkish coalition of america against University of Minnesota, of the Ron Paul’s presidential campaign leaders and a huge influence on Ron Paul despite Ron Paul’s supposed “anti-interventionist” foreign policy)
-david saltzman (turkish coalition of america, works with bruce fein in their anti-Armenian activity)
-george friedman (founder of stratfor, advocate of “keep Armenia isolated”)
-rivka cohen (israeli ambassador to Armenia and georgia, openly and officially denied the Armenian Genocide while in Armenia)
-vladimir socor (political analyst of east european affairs for the jamestown foundation and its eurasia daily monitor propaganda bullhorn, prominent Armenian Genocide denier, prominent supporter of the lie that Artsakh belongs to azerbaijan, psychotic Russophobe – interestingly Socor also has some Armenian ancestry in addition to his jew heritage, a stark example of the dangers of race-mixing with Jews )
-michael rubin (current resident scholar at the american enterprise institute and a senior lecturer at the naval postgraduate school, has lectured in history at yale university, hebrew university, and Johns Hopkins University, heavily involved in the war and destruction against Iraq)
-stephen blank (a senior fellow and resident Russia “expert” at the american foreign policy council, previously worked as a professor at the strategic studies institute of the u.s. army war college at carlisle barracks, pennsylvania)
-richard weitzor (a senior fellow and director of the center for political-military analysis at hudson institute and an expert at wikistrat, previously from 2002 to 2004 was a consultant for the center for strategic and international studies, the defense science board, and d.f.i. international, inc., also has held positions with the center for strategic studies, the belfer center for science and international affairs at harvard university’s kennedy school of government, and the u.s. department of defense.)
-denis jaffe (anti-Armenian journalist)
-guy billauer (anti-Armenian attorney)
-stephen schwartz (anti-Armenian, anti-Russian, anti-Serbian, advocate for turco-islamist extremism)
-madeline albright (former u.s. secretary of state, active Armenian Genocide denier, butcher of Orthodox Chrsitian Serbs in Serbia, founder of an illegitimate turkic-islamic state in Serbian Kosovo, on record as say half a million dead Iraqi civilians was “worth it” to put pressure on Saddam Hussein)
-william cohen (former u.s. secretary of defense, active Armenian Genocide denier, war criminal responsible for millions of deaths and casualties all around the world including Serbia and Iraq)
-norma zager (paid propagandist for azerbaijan masquerading as a “journalist”, published anti-Armenian and anti-Artsakh crap in papers like the Washington Times)
-annette blum (paid propagandist for azerbaijan masquerading as a “journalist” and “activist”, published Azerbaijan-worshipping, anti-Armenian and anti-Artsakh crap in papers like the Huffington Post)
what does it change
Armenians globally have impressive representations in every field, lets take the fight to the Jews on every level & expose them for what they are really like
Its about time we stopped the nonsense about how Jews understand us. they are out in force against us, yes individual Jews will stand up against the lies, but we are talking about fighting the collective nation of Israel which is in force fighting against our interests
If any group can take the fight to them its Armenians, and we will do much damage and expose their hate & lies for everything non Jewish
Yes, they are engaged in the war against Armenia. Listen to the sound of this truth and wake up.
With an invariable consistency, now for several years, Asbarez prints each April two things. “Jewish scholar condemns …” and “Obama fails to recognize ….”. How stupid one should be not to see the link!
What did the history of the Armenian Genocide Denial did is an unprecedented phenomena. Armenians recognize from the first sound, letter the true and the false. We read between the lines, we feel the emptiness of the vessels of promises. Thank you America for lessons.
I think, it is time for Asbarez columnists to stop being “politically-ass-leaking”, while the rest of the US world exercises just “politically-correct”. Armenians are not the lower cast of this society – there is no need to be more serving than you have been called to serve. Get some fresh air into your lungs and say something deserving our Fatherland!