For weeks, Washington, D.C. has been the scene of frantic smoky back-room lobbying and political maneuvering against H.Res.106/S.Res.106 (AKA The Armenian Genocide Resolution). A recent article in the Los Angeles Times and a commentary by The Jewish Exponent’s Jonathan S. Tobin published by Jewish World Review describe Israel’s dilemma of being torn between allegiance to Turkey, the only Muslim nation not actively trying to drive it into the sea, and moral obligation to a people whose history of persecution and extermination (video link)  parallels that of the Jews so closely that Armenians are sometimes referred to as “the Chosen People of the New Testament.” Two differing views of Israel’s choice:

From the Los Angeles Times:

Though the events lie far in the past, Armenians and Armenian Americans have worked hard to keep the memory alive. The Turkish government and the ultranationalists who are resurgent in that country have worked equally hard to keep the U.S. government from taking a position.

Caught in the middle of the debate are Israel and its supporters. …

Civilian and military leaders of the Turkish government, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, met at a Washington hotel in February with more than a dozen leaders of major Jewish organizations in an effort to prevent action on the resolution. Members of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee took part in the gathering.

“I believe the right thing for the Jewish community is to recognize the Armenian genocide as a fact, because virtually every historian and scholar of note in this area calls it a genocide,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America. “As friends of Turkey, we need to encourage them to just recognize the truth, honor the victims and be done with it. This would only enhance Turkey’s standing in the world.”

Other Jewish leaders, believing the security needs of the U.S. and Israel trump distant history, are siding with Turkey.

“I don’t think a bill in Congress will help reconcile this issue. The resolution takes a position. It comes to a judgment,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn’t be the arbiter of that history,” he said. “And I don’t think the U.S. Congress should be the arbiter either.”

From Jewish World Review:

It was the first modern genocide, and the fact that the perpetrators were never held accountable is often cited as a reason why the Nazis thought they could get away with trying to exterminate the Jews.

You would think that a Jewish community that has expended so much effort not only to enshrine the memory of the Holocaust but to ensure that it serve as an example to warn against crimes against others would be aligned with the Armenians, but that’s not entirely correct.

Though many Jews support the genocide resolution, some of the biggest Jewish communal players, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (which has worked for years to build support for the Israel-Turkey alliance), are not. …

No one should expect Jews, of all people, to lie about mass murder. The Turkish policy of official historical revisionism is as absurd as it is counterproductive. The Turks’ stand on the Armenians only harms their international standing and efforts to integrate with the West. …

In theory, a victory for historic truth ought to serve as insurance for Jews and any other people who have faced annihilation and may yet again. …

Will an Armenian genocide resolution help us defend Israel against the threat of, say, an Iranian attempt at nuclear genocide better than a friendly Turkey? Some might believe that to be true. But can anyone who cares about the possibility of another mass murder of a non-Muslim population in the Middle East be indifferent to the possibility that it won’t?

To help resolve Israel’s quandry, The Stiletto would like to point out that a scant generation after the devastating loss of so many of their brothers, sons and fathers,  Armenian men fought and died in the Russian army during World War II to help Allied forces defeat Hitler. In contrast, Turkey claimed to be neutral while supplying the German war machine with raw materials and was its sole source of chromite, a mineral used to harden steel, to manufacture stainless steel and for anodising aluminium used to make aircraft parts. 

Editorial Note: Click here for the backstory on the Los Angeles Times article cited in this post.

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