I once tried to blow the whistle on the Israel lobby’s denial of the Armenian Genocide — and it cost me my job
BY MARK ARAX
From Salon
Some of the most powerful leaders in the American Jewish community have stepped forward in recent days to acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turkey.
On the surface, this would seem unremarkable. As victims of the Holocaust, Jews might be expected to stand beside the Armenians and their tragedy. After all, the massacres and death marches across Anatolia during the fog of World War I became a model for Hitler himself.
But this sudden embrace of the Armenian Genocide actually marks a shameless turnaround for the major American Jewish organizations. For decades, they have helped Turkey cover up its murderous past. Each year, the Israel lobby in the U.S. has played a quiet but pivotal role in pressuring Congress, the State Department and successive presidents to defeat simple congressional resolutions commemorating the 1.5 million Armenian victims.
Genocide denial is not a pretty thing, they now concede, but they did it for Israel. They did it out of gratitude for Turkey being Israel’s one and only Muslim ally.
Now the game has changed. Israel and Turkey are locked in a feud over the Palestine-bound flotilla that was intercepted on the high seas by Israel. Turkey is outraged over the killing of nine of its citizens on board. Israel is outraged that a country with Turkey’s past would dare judge the morality of the Jewish state.
So the Armenian Genocide has become a new weapon in the hands of Israel and its supporters in the U.S., a way to threaten Turkey, a conniver’s get-even: Hey, Turkey, if you want to play nasty with Israel, if you want to lecture us about violations of human rights, we can easily go the other way on the Armenian Genocide. No more walking the halls of Congress to plead your shameful case.
If I sound cynical about all this, maybe I am.
In the spring of 2007, I wrote a story that revealed how genocide denial had become a dirty little pact between Turkey and Israel and its lobby in the U.S.
The story, as it turned out, was my last story at the Los Angeles Times, the only story in my 20-year career that was killed on the eve of publication.
Three years later, I can still hear myself framing its contours to one of our editors in the Washington bureau:
A rift over genocide denial has begun to crack open inside the Jewish community. If you listen closely, you can hear the stirrings of a debate.
On one side were the conservative, Likud-devoted lions of the major Jewish organizations who championed the virtues of Turkey, the first Muslim country to formally recognize Israel. As long as Ankara continued to cooperate in Israeli military exercises and purchase Israeli war machines, it deserved special treatment. Israel itself had adopted an official policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. Its supporters in the U.S. were obliged to do the same.
On the other side were more progressive Jews who couldn’t stomach the notion that Holocaust survivors were working so diligently to erase the memory of another people’s genocide. How could Jewish leaders whose every sense was tuned to detect the Holocaust deniers in our midst, who had gone to the ends of the earth to hunt down Hitler’s henchmen, now enlist with the patrons of genocide?
It was the sort of hypocrisy that made the vow of “Never Again” sound exclusive, a shelter for just one.
My editor was intrigued. Here was an important and timely topic that no newspaper or magazine had ever covered. The fact that I was the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors didn’t seem to give him any pause. If nothing else, my ethnic background gave me a working knowledge of the issues and the players.
I knew that experts in the field of Holocaust studies recognized the Armenian Genocide as an antecedent with chilling echoes. And Jewish scholars were openly condemning Turkey’s long campaign of denial, seeing it as the psychological continuation of genocidal trauma.
But these same scholars were mostly silent when it came to the behind-the-scenes role that Israel and its lobby in the U.S — the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, neoconservative think tanks and Bush administration hawks — were playing in this denial.
This was the story I wanted to tell as the ceremonial bill went to committee that April — the month that Armenians remember their martyrs.
The only caution from my editor was that I conduct all interviews on-the-record. “Unnamed sources aren’t going to work for this one,” he said.
I drove down Wilshire Boulevard and knocked on the door of the Turkish Consulate. The diplomat in charge, a polished man in a three-piece suit, wondered how the events of 1915 could constitute a genocide if I, an Armenian, was standing literally before him.
“So both of your grandfathers survived, huh?” he said in an accuser’s tone.
I tracked down Yair Auron, the professor at the Open University of Israel who had authored the seminal 2003 book “The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide.”
He had written it out of shame, he said. “Denial of the Armenian Genocide in the Jewish Diaspora is closely connected to the policy of denial in Israel. This is nothing less than a betrayal of the moral legacy of the Holocaust.”
Then I found my way to the equivocators and deniers who sat at the helms of the major American Jewish organizations. None was more blunt than Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League in New York. The Armenian Genocide had become his own convenient cudgel to keep Turkey in line.
Foxman had just returned from a meeting with Turkish military and government leaders to discuss pressuring Congress, the State Department and President Bush to turn back the genocide resolution once again.
“Our focus is Israel,” he explained. “If helping Turkey helps Israel, then that’s what we’re in the business of doing.”
But such a bottom line would seem an uncomfortable place for a Jewish leader to be when the question was genocide.
“Was it genocide?” he said. “It was wartime. Things get messy.”
He questioned whether a bill in Congress would help “reconcile” the differences between Turks and Armenians, as though the whole thing was a marital spat that needed some calming down.
“The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn’t be the arbiter of that history. And I don’t think the U.S. Congress should be the arbiter, either.”
He was lifting lines right out of the Turkish playbook. I almost had to revisit his website to make sure that the ADL was still in the business of fighting not only anti-Semitism but “bigotry and extremism” and “securing justice and fair treatment to all.”
I pointed out that the genocide had already been documented as a fact by many prominent historians. And Congress recognizes all sorts of people’s history. Resolutions commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, for instance.
“You’re not suggesting that an Armenian Genocide is the same as the Holocaust, are you?”
I tried to draw the parallels that the scholars had drawn, but Foxman saw it as an affront. The oneness of the Holocaust was being debased by Armenians looking for a piggyback ride.
“Are you Armenian?” he finally asked.
“Would it matter if I was?” I replied. “Black reporters cover civil rights. Latino reporters cover immigration. Jewish reporters write about Holocaust deniers. We’re journalists.”
I wrote the story and filed it. My editor in Washington was pleased. It landed on the weekend budget, a strong candidate for Page One.
The weekend came and went, but the story held. I called the editor and asked if there was a problem. He was sorry to say that the story had been killed — on a last-minute order from the managing editor.
“But why?” I asked.
“Your byline,” he said.
“My byline?”
Then it hit me. Even as the paper was nominating one of my other stories for a Pulitzer Prize, on this story I was an Armenian.
The official explanation was a beauty. The managing editor said I was not an objective reporter because I had once signed a petition stating that the Armenian Genocide was a historical fact.
I had never signed such a petition. But if I had, how did this prove bias? Our own style book at the Times recognized the genocide as a historical fact.
“Would you tell a Jewish reporter that he couldn’t write about Holocaust denial because he believed the Holocaust was a fact?” I asked.
His answer was to reassign my story to a colleague in Washington who covered Congress. That this reporter was Jewish — and the story dealt with Jewish denial of the genocide — didn’t seem to faze the managing editor. The colleague, who may not have had a choice in the matter, proceeded to gut my story. By the time he was done, there was not a single mention of Jewish denial.
After an ugly public fight, I left the paper. The managing editor was later pushed out when an internal probe showed that my story was factual and without bias.
These days, I find myself more than a curious observer of the new cold war that has broken out between Turkey and Israel and its supporters.
What to make of the rush of Jewish leaders — from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington to a city councilman named Jack Weiss in Los Angeles — coming forward in the past few weeks to divulge their role in genocide denial?
“Frankly, [it] was not becoming for Jews, given that we have likewise been victims of genocide,” Weiss wrote in an inelegant piece in the Jewish Journal.
How to account for these sudden confessions? A pang of remorse? A cleansing of the soul? I’m afraid not. These aren’t confessions, at all. Rather, they are reminders of the debt Turkey owes Israel — and they come with teeth bared.
Last week, four Jewish professors from Georgetown and Bar Ilan universities urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. Take that, Turkey!
How will Ankara react? Will fear of genocide recognition, which it considers a national security issue, eventually cause Turkey to soften its accusations of apartheid against Israel and become a compliant ally again?
And what about the Armenians and their lobby? Aren’t they guilty of their own cynicism for watching the flotilla feud and now thinking that the winds of geopolitics have finally blown their way? Will they cozy up to Jewish leaders suddenly eager to embrace their genocide? Or will they tell them “thanks but no thanks” and join Turkey in standing up for the Palestinian cause?
Only next April, the season of the return of the genocide resolution, will tell.
_______
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mark Arax is the author of several books, including the most recent, “West of the West.”
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As Mark points out the only reason the Armenian Genocide has not been recognized by the US is the Israel Lobby. Now that Turkey has instigated a wedge between Israel and itself, has it come to the decision that it will no longer be subject to blackmail by Israelis. Without this support in Congress, has it come to grips with the inevitability that the Genocide will be adopted by Congress?
The Isreali lobby is not the only reason.The US State dept openly admits that Turkeys streteagic position inthe region is more important.Political football,thats all we are to the west.
The US did the same thing with regard to Japan after World War II when they pardoned many Japanese war criminals in a deal to keep Japan from going communist. Politics always trumps genuine morality in every case, as taught by that notorious Catholic political scientist Machiavelli.
Turkey knows Israel won’t recognize the genocide because Turkey know Isreal relies too much on it. There is plans to build pipelines of both water and oil to Israel: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824. Turkey knows it can get away with making Israel look bad for popular support for the upcoming elections.
Turkey better be careful and not keep upsetting Jewish Americans because they’ll want to get even with genocide recognition.
Genocide recognition means nothing to cynical power brokers. It’s the money that counts. Above all the purpose of Holocaust reparations was to help fortify the Jewish state as an imperial bulwark in the Middle East. The only important question for Armenians is whether they will get financial compensation from the Turks and whether it will be used to help finance an independent Armenian state. Jews know that the bottom line of all these “moral appeals” is “show me the money.” I hope the Armenians will not be naive and placated by meaningless words and gestures.
Even if every country on earth recognized the historical fact of the Turkish attempt at genocide against us the Turks will not.For Isreal to “suddenly” discover is kind of silly.They should be able to actualy remember.They were witness to it.
Arto T. said:
“As Mark points out the only reason the Armenian Genocide has not been recognized by the US is the Israel Lobby.”
Lets not forget about BAE Systems Inc., Goodrich Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., United Technologies Corp., Chevron Corp, etc. Maybe it’s the best time ever as BP is busy lobbying for its life…
It is too early to say that the top groups within the Jewish lobby (ADL, AJC, JINSA, B’nai B’rith, AIPAC. etc. ) are on our side on the genocide issue. Indeed, they are NOT are our side, in truth, and probably never will be.
Those groups are not even saying that they will support the genocide resolution. They are merely saying that they may not oppose it. There’s a big difference as you can see. Those lobby groups have not yet decided how to strike back at Turkey. On the one hand, they are angry at Turkey. On the other hand, there is a certain fear about how the crazies – and they are crazy – who run Turkey may react. In any case, only those Jews and others who previously supported us (before the Gaza flotilla attack) have any principles that can be counted on. The others are just using Armenians at this moment to scare Turkey.
Don’t be fooled.
The Israel lobby is crying out about morals every time the Holocaust is denied. Where were their morals during their decades of genocide denial? They lash out at Iran for questioning their Holocaust, however They have DENIED the holocaust of Armenians. So why was it okay for them to deny and not for anyone else?
Now, they are NOT acting out of moral conscience. They are trying to exploit the Armenian Genocide and use Armenians as a political pawn.
Someone should let them know that Armenians are not so stupid and we dont fall for their dirty politics
No we are not stupid but dirty politics,come on,things are disfunctional at best in Armenian politics
“You’re not suggesting that an Armenian Genocide is the same as the Holocaust, are you?”
-Abe Foxman
Excellent article Mark, abris hayrenugits, how truly evil , filthy and manipulative these interest groups are….
Please note: Dr. Kaiser’s documentary is called ” Germany, Turkey and the Armenian Genocide”
I am afraid John Papazian what you say is all true! Neither Israel nor the US leaders have any shame nor have shown morality for the past 30+ years to call the Armenian Genocide by it’s proper name. It has become to them only politics and morality is taken out of the context. Shame and more shame to them.
Israel is using this threat to get a better grip on Turkey. It has nothing to do with the Armenians or the Genocide. Eventually Turkey will succumb and become even more loyal to Israel and the West.
The Turks are anything but loyal,they will better deal the US and Isreal first chance they get.
As Samantha Power made very clear in her Pulitzer -prize winner “a Problem from Hell”, the USA is guided by national interests, not morals, and if its convenient for the US to save lives in IRAK or obtain Turkeys support in controlling Iraks oil, the Us will conveniently forget everything Ambasssador Morgenthau and US consuls in Turkey wrote 95 years ago . She is now a member of the government and advising president Obama on this issue. I do hope that in a not too distant future the moral issue and US national interests will coincide.
i agree with john… in this case we should not exaggerate the power of Israeli/Jewish lobby…
Strange bedfellows, indeed, U.S., Israel, and Turkey while Armenia dreams on.
It’s a bloody nightmare waiting to happen.Funny thing is Turkey will betray Iran just like the way they switched sides on Germany,twice!
Just noticed the holocaust tour ad,anyone going?
This ‘menage a trois’ involving the USA, the Jews (both in Israel) and in the Diaspora and Turkey is a well known fact. The underhand machinations which play a vital role in denying the facts of the Armenian genocide is a very jealously guarded secret from those not in the know but known by authorities, journalists and the like. However, there is a pact which benefits these three nations to their shame. What most Armenians don’t realize is all the countries which are considered ‘Western Europe’ or on a larger scale ‘Western Civilization’ are pressured in a similar fashion. The only trump card the European Community holds is whether to admit Turkey in the European Union or not. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the pressure from the USA and the Jews will eventually prevail. In time NATO will be desolved, being an archaic organization serving no useful purpose and Turkey needs to be tied to the West when that eventuates. Mr. Mark Arax is an excellent journalist whose merits are above recognition by a Pulitzer Prize.
Having an aunt who survived the Holocaust, having visited the death camps of Poland with survivors, being a member of my own ethnic heritage group that experienced genocide and having seen the Nazi documentation on relatives and read the reasons for slaughter used by Stalin and his buddies, having been involved with the ADL for decades – receiving inside information on the challenges in the Middle East and having heard the bombs go flying into Israel on a regular basis while talking to relatives in Israel, having worked with scores of Holocaust survivors and their families professionally as a trauma expert, this personalization of the Armenian genocide, which was as tragic as the genocide of the Volga Germans in Russia, and the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, is more about Mark’s history, carried history and the feelings associated with this trauma, more so than it is with Israel. Being the product of a “hidden” genocide myself, I understand this experience and the consequences to this very well.
But Israel is another matter. This country is surrounded by hostile countries that want to wipe it off of the face of the earth. That’s today. That’s reality and I know this first hand. Because of the politics with the last several presidents, including the current Obama administration, Israel has not been allowed to take care of itself. The country has been at the whim of forces much more powerful than itself. We get the inside scoop about such matters on a regular basis and understand the concept of going to any lengths to protect ones self. So, if Israel isn’t being “Politically Correct” on the outside, trust me, there are reasons for this. Anyone who can’t admit this is only taking a superficial look at the problem.
I get very angry that scores of my relatives were sent to the gulags of Siberia and that the United States doesn’t recognize that Stalin wanted to eliminate every single Volga German in Russia even though these families had been living along the Volga River for 200 years. Few in the U.S. are even aware that those Volga Germans who did make it to the U.S. were then accused of being Nazis because they were of German extraction or Communists because they were from Russia. The KKK burned crosses on the front lawns of my relatives. Millions of Germans from Russia in Russia and then the Soviet Union, were shot, starved to death, and sent to concentration camps. I have relatives who were finally, after decades of abuse, loss of home, country and family, able to leave Russia, Siberia and Kazakhstan in 2002. Watching administration after administration “suck up” to Russia makes me sick. Though I’m outraged by all of this, this is a genocide separate from what’s happening in Israel today.
The politics of Israel, today, not yesterday, with a dictator with the bomb in Iran, and Hezbollah and Hamas breathing down the neck of relatives on the boarder is a current affair and a current concern of ours, my family. Just last week Michael and I discussed how we could get younger Israeli relatives to the states if war broke out.
I wish Mark would have taken the time to talk to Israelis who’s homes continue to be shelled, visited with the Israeli children who have been traumatized by this – who continue to experience trauma today, and the parents of children in the military who have died, or to numerous Holocaust survivors who still have tattoos on their arms.
Like the tragedies of Stalin and the genocides he perpetuated upon so many ethnic groups, including the Armenians, the Holocaust and the slaughter of the Armenians by the Turks are dark, horrible times in history. The U.S. continues to push aside past genocides for political reasons and trust me, the big thumb of our government presses down on the Israeli government and “Political Correctness” is a pressure point on many, many levels.
Israel is just trying to survive. So, my question is this; should I get upset because the genocide of the Armenians has received more attention world wide and in the states than the genocide of the Germans from Russia? My answer would be no. Also, a second question; did it ever occur to Mark that maybe its now politically “safe” for Israel to express discontent with Turkey? My answer, knowing what I know would be yes.
Not matter how you want to justify it or explain it ISRAEL HAS DENIED THE TRUTH REGARDING THE GENOCIDE OF THE ARMENIAN RACE.Period.Full Stop.Go back to watching the pro Israeli media and leave us alone!!!!!!! I agree that there are many , many, many , many moral ethical good human beings that are Jews BUT Israel’s policy to date re the ARmenian Genocides is based open a LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Carla,
Israel can try and survive without meddling in Armenian affairs. The fact that you’re actually trying to create a justification for the blatant denial and sabotage of AG recognition efforts by a great many Jews and Jewish groups such as the ADL and your boss, the rat faced pig, Abe Foxman by pointing out that the Jewish meddling, backstacking, and underhanded tactics in continually undermining the proper recognition/reparation of our Armenian grandmothers/fathers’ memories has all been in the name of “Israel’s surivival” is disgusting.
Armenians also have had “difficult times” on the geopolitical sphere in the past 50 years, but we didn’t ensure our survival by capitalizing on the leveraging effects we can impart on our political adversaries through the use of other people’s suffering, which is EXACTLY what many of you Jews have done and continue to do with regards to Armenian efforts to recognize the AG.
Instead of writing long drawn out letters addressing Armenians in justifiying your actions, you should redirect your energy in teaching your fellow Jews the errors of their shameless lies, manipulative practices, and self righteous annunciations regarding the “uniqueness” of the Holocaust as the only worthy example of human suffering that should be addressed by the world.
The Holocaust is not only NOT unique, but instead comes in a distant second to the tragic event of the Armenian Genocide that heralded the deaths of the Jews in WW II. If the AG was not just as if not more important to recognize and reparation paid as the Holocaust, then all of those German Jews in the ghettos would not be thumbing through the pages of “40 Days of Musa Dagh” in hopes of finding answers to their prayers.
Jews worldwide should have thanked Armenians for the hope we inspired in you in your darkest hour, instead, many Jews adopted the policy of manipulation and prevention of Armenian Genocide recognition efforts at every turn against Armenians. Hopefully all Jews are slowly learning their lessons well, the last thing you need is to have Armenians be added to your long list of enemies, because we’ve been around far longer than you have been and we don’t forgive as easily as your present enemies.
Leave you alone? I don’t know who you are and you don’t know who I am or where I’ve come from, what I’ve survived. I’m sorry if my blog offended you, but, I will stand with Israel till my dying day. Israel has not denied the truth about the Armenian Genocide. You are talking about fringe groups and politics, not the majority. The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust genocide has bonded Jews and Armenians together for decades. Israel just hasn’t openly stated it’s position in the “Politically Correct” terms that would make everyone feel warm and fuzzy. There is reason for this and it has nothing to do with denying the Armenian Genocide. That would be ignorant, immoral, illogical and incredibly uneducated.
In spite of my strong support and stance on the Armenian genocide, I can’t believe I’m being pounded on this. Raged at and shamed. As a Jew, someone who has lost relatives because of Hitler’s Holocaust and Stalin’s Cold War, with relatives in Israel living with rockets flying over their homes I’m not suppose to state my truth? Me? Someone who has personally been the target of a great deal of anti Semitism? I’m not suppose to support Jewish groups that have stepped up to the plate to support and protect me and my family because Arax has a beef (as many do) with the ADL’s Fox? You want me to take the heat for the Jewish fringe groups who want to put a wedge between the strong ties between Jews and Armenians? You think I’m against the Armenian Genocide? I grew up in Fresno, CA for crying out loud surrounded by adopted Armenian aunts and uncles!
I don’t know one single Israeli or American Jew who does not believe the Armenian Genocide was a terrible, hateful time in history. But, my family members were starved and murdered in Russia, and so because Russia won’t own this am I going to pound on people who support Russia? The Nazis destroyed my husband’s family, so when I go to Germany do I pitch a fit because of the Holocaust? No. Germans don’t treat the Germans from Russia who have recently immigrated to Germany with much dignity, but when someone from Germany steps up to the plate to try to show how attempts have been made, should I blast them out of the water with my rage? No, I haven’t and wouldn’t. And I wouldn’t make mass generalizations either.
Arax is an Armenian fighting for the past harm done to Armenia, while I’m a Jew fighting for Israel and trying to be supportive of those who have suffered because of genocide. He, you and I may operate differently, but we all oppose genocide. That said, the difference between he, you and I is that I’m not only a Jew, but I’m very supportive of genocides outside my own ethnic heritage and I don’t rage at those who won’t put my causes front and center. Unfortunately, that’s not enough and because I’m having a really hard time with the mass generalizations that are being made with regard to this issue and American Jews and Israel, I’ve become a target.
That said, I’ll end with this; I’m very baffled why no one wants to read between the political lines and ask the question, “Why was the Israeli Lobby shying away from this conflict in the first place? Did it really mean they were a bunch of deniers?” Well there is the history, with Turkey being the only country that would take in Jews during the 15th century, but I don’t think that’s it. And I already mentioned that Turkey was the only Muslim country to recognize Israel’s right to exist, but there have been major disagreements between the countries since then. Every Jew with a good grasp of this history knows this. Or might it be water and gas lines? Well, it is a concern, but not the main issue. How about business? Weapons business? What’s the saying? Do business with potential enemies and this might keep you safe?
What most don’t know is that Israel has been walking a very, very thin line with Turkey for decades. The alliance has been tested time and time again, but for survival purposes, Israel has done what it needs to do to survive. Big issue for Israel! Arax doesn’t think this is important, and so I ask, what would everyone have Israel do?
Recently, the alliance between the two countries has all but shattered. The Muslim safety net of Turkey is not so safe any more. Arax seems to think that Israel isn’t under the thumb of the U.S. government, when in fact, it is. The U.S. has also put pressure on Israel with regard to Turkey. Does the world at large really understand where Israel would be without U.S. support? Arax sees Israel as some big nuke state with massive independence. That’s a joke. We Jews know the truth and its a tangled web.
If I was “large and in charge” I’d want Israel to truly be independent from those countries that continue to threaten it, keep a thumb on it, threaten to withdraw support, aid, but this isn’t going to happen. So, hate Israel, hate Jews, but understand – the majority living in Israel haven’t denied the truth about the Armenian Genocide. The majority of American Jews don’t deny the Armenian Genocide. The ADL’s “No Place for Hate Program” teaches the Armenian Genocide in American public schools.
So, if it makes you feel better, keep trying to drive that wedge between Jews and Armenians – those on this bandwagon may find a bit of satisfaction in doing this, but in the long run it won’t work. Why is this? Because as I and so many other Jews and those in Israel fight for Israel, the slaughtered millions in Russia, Jews who experience rising anti-Semitism everyday, and genocides everywhere, we will also continue to stand up for the Armenian Genocide, regardless of the hate you direct toward us. And we will stand by Israel, because what is true about Israel is that Israel is in a panick right now.
Carla: You write: “Someone who has personally been the target of a great deal of anti Semitism? I’m not suppose to support Jewish groups that have stepped up to the plate to support and protect me and my family because Arax has a beef (as many do) with the ADL’s Fox?”
I too am a Jew who lived in Israel as an Orthodox Jewish believer for many years before converting to Christianity. I am curious why you think these various Jewish groups “have stepped up to the plate to support and protect me and my family”? So far as I can tell people like Foxman and Wiesel have helped themselves to blood money and protected their own financial self interests. They have done nothing for me or probably for you either.
I think you sound very narrow minded and bigoted. If you want to be a Jewish chauvinist why should you expect anyone else in the world to support the Jewish cause, whatever that is?
My thoughts are expressed on this Amazon comment: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1OVP6GMJS9M1E/ref=cm_cr_rev_detmd_pl?ie=UTF8&asin=076580834X&cdForum=Fx2J12CIPLMN5SU&cdMsgID=Mx2GI1S0Q10QXG3&cdMsgNo=10&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxIOFHM9A73V7A&store=books#Mx2GI1S0Q10QXG3
P.S. Because I know my words will be misread, when I said, “That said, the difference between he, you and I is that I’m not only a Jew, but I’m very supportive of genocides outside my own ethnic heritage and I don’t rage at those who won’t put my causes front and center” don’t run with the idea that I “support” acts of genocide please. I support exposing genocide.
?????????????????????????????????
1. Shimon Perez was a representative of Israel
2.While represnting Israel, in an official capacity HE SAID THAT THERE WAS NO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE and you could not even compare it to your Holocaust
3.As a logical consequence, the Israeli position is that there was no Armenian Genocide
Too hard to comprehend????????
Ms. Carla Wills-Brandon is essentially stating that if Armenia’s government and Armenian-American lobbies needed to deny the Jewish Holocaust in order to win brownie points with its neighbors it would be justifiable. This must be one of the most deplorable explanations I have ever heard of. You should be ashamed of yourself Ms. Wills-Brandon. The Israeli government and Israeli political groups–ADL, JINSA, AIPAC, AJC et al–have not “shyed away” from this issue as you say. They have in fact taken a denial position and actively worked against the recognition of the ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST for decades. What would your reaction be if Armenian groups did the same regarding the Jewish holocaust? Think about that one.
Jews seem to want a copyrite on “genocide.” Well, perhaps they deserve it since in fact their bible contains the first written record of genocide in Western literature, in extolling the annihilation of Amalekites and other enemies of the ancient Judean State. So perhaps as the original perpetrators of genocide, Jews know it best and have a right to keep the brand for themselves and to dole it out parsimoniously to their own most hated enemies?!
As a Jewish believer in Jesus who lived as an Orthodox Jew in Israel for many years, I find the apologetics for denial here highly offensive. Genocide is genocide. I agree with the other thoughtful commentators here who condemn these self serving deniers of the Armenian genocide.
The problem many readers may have is failing to understand that Jews classically seek alliances not with victims but with great powers. This is why the Zionists collaborated with the NAZIS in the transfer agreement, as explained in this brilliant book: The Transfer Agreement–25th Anniversary Edition: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine
Jews occupy a uniquely perilous position of constantly seeking to ingratiate themselves into favor with dominant powers. As a small and vulnerable minority wielding power of the purse, Jews are constantly on guard against the dominant culture turning on them. This is why they so jealously guard the term “genocide” as their exclusive copyrite and patent: because it is essential to their survival as political and cultural parasites who wield the power of guilt to keep their more numerous and powerful hosts at bay.
As for the argument of whose genocide came first, I recommend this book: Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization that explains how the British introduced the first concentration camps in the Boer War against South Africa in 1904 and how the British committed the first war crimes in World War II when they embarked on a campaign of night time bombings of German civilian cities. The Germans waited patiently for six months as their citizens were annihilated in attacks that violated the Geneva Conventions before launching the Battle of Britain in retaliation. Here in the West we hear only of the retaliation and pretend that the British were innocent victims of German malice.
The point is that human violence and aggression are not confined to one group directed against another group. All groups are potentially and actually guilty of this most egregious misbehavior. But Jewish chauvinists refuse to acknowledge the universality of human barbarism, including amongst their own kind. The internet has gone a very long way to exposing the universal human predilection for self serving lies and corruption and to wield guilt as a strategic weapon against others.
Above all Jews cannot — or will not — recognize that their genocide in World War II comprised just 10% of the total global casualties of that horrific conflagration. They are unable to empathize with others and to perceive the overall tragedy of the human condition. This is what so pains me as a Jew. And why I embraced Jesus Christ, the Jewish Savior who embraced the whole world with Divine Love, as the highest example of the nobility of the Jewish soul.