Opinion: The Lobby and genocide
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Poor Jews. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Even on such seemingly non-Jewish issues as ... symbolic U.S. congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide. From the Jerusalem Post:
When a US Congressional committee approved a resolution recognizing the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Turkey’s reaction was swift and harsh: Blame the Jews. In an interview with the liberal Islamic Zaman newspaper on the eve of the resolution’s approval October 10 by the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said he had told American Jewish leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception in Turkey that “Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks.” Babacan added, “We have told them that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this.” The Turkish public seems to have absorbed that message. An on-line survey by Zaman’s English-language edition asking why Turks believed the bill succeeded showed that 22 percent of respondents chose “Jews’ having legitimized the genocide claims” - second only to “Turkey’s negligence.”
Since a good chunk of the foreign policy commentariat appears to be 100% baffled why any Americans would want their government to call a historical horror by its accurate name -- or in The Economist’s memorable phrasing, “Foreign-policy experts, too, are aghast” -- the field is open for explanations of what’s really behind the resolution. Which inevitably leads to ... The Lobby. Wayne Madsen has the goods:
Experts on U.S.-Turkish relations in Washington report that the recent deterioration in relations between Washington and Ankara are primarily due to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Turkey’s other erstwhile friends, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), pulling support for their former allies in Turkey because of increasingly closer Turkish relations with both Syria and Iran -- two countries that are being targeted by the neocon cells operating in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and among Kadima and Likud circles in Jerusalem.
There are some problems with this analysis. For one, Israel itself hasn’t officially recognized the genocide. Another, is that a ballyhooed data point in the Lobby-is-behind-the-resolution thesis is that the Anti-Defamation League switched its longstanding position this summer and now officially recognizes the genocide. But the ADL remains steadfastly against the resolution, for the usual reasons of not wanting to irritate one of Israel’s (and America’s) most strategically important allies. Armenian-American groups, for example, are still twisting the screws on the ADL:
Nearly two months after the Anti-Defamation League reversed itself by acknowledging the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as “tantamount to genocide,” activists in the Boston area are pushing ahead with their campaign against the organization. On Monday night, at the urging of Armenian American activists and some Jewish allies, two Massachusetts towns -- Lexington and Arlington -- voted to sever ties with the ADL’s highly touted No Place for Hate anti-bigotry program. Three other towns -- Watertown, Newton and Belmont -- already had decided to end their ties with the ADL, and several more municipalities are considering similar steps. [...] The campaign against the ADL was launched this summer after the organization refused to use the term “genocide” to describe the 1915-18 massacres out of deference to Turkey, an American and Israeli ally. Though the ADL backtracked from that position, declaring in August that “the consequences” of the killings “were indeed tantamount to genocide,” Armenian activists continue to accuse the Jewish organization of genocide denial. Some critics claim the ADL hedged its words, while others say the organization’s statement was insincere. In addition, they cite the organization’s continuing opposition to a congressional measure recognizing the killings as genocide. An ADL spokeswoman dismissed the charge that the formulation was a hedge, noting that “tantamount” means “equivalent to.”
The resolution -- which looks like it won’t make the House floor, due to fears that it might not pass (a vote “no” being much worse than no vote at all, from supporters’ point of view) -- has indeed divided the Jewish community in interesting ways. And its main backer, local Congressman Adam Schiff, is indeed Jewish (check out Schiff being interviewed on the topic by the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Gigot). But no matter what happens to the vote -- yeah, nay, put away -- it’s clear that for a non-insignificant portion of interested parties, the outcome will be the Jews’ fault.