RATTLING THE CAGE: JEWS OF POWER, JEWS OF TRUTH
By Larry Derfner
Jerusalem Post
92380703974&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowF ull
Oct 31 2007
How long are Israel and its lobby in Washington going to go on living
this ridiculous, transparent lie? How long are they going to hock
the world about the Holocaust while acting as Turkey’s number two
accomplice, number one being the White House, in denying the Armenian
genocide? Again, Congress has demonstrated it won’t recognize that
the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor, deliberately wiped out
about 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-17. Again, the president of
the United States has scared Congress off with a big assist from
the Anti-Defamation League and other American Jewish "defense"
organizations. (Historically, the American Jewish Committee has led
the Israel lobby’s effort to shut Congress up about the genocide and
the Ottoman Empire’s culpability.)
This time, the main reason given was American troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Without Turkey’s good will and cooperation, it was
argued, the US would not be able to get weapons and equipment to its
soldiers in battle. This is obviously a serious concern – but the
White House, Israel and the Israel lobby have been hushing up the
Armenian genocide for decades, when there were no American troops in
Iraq or Afghanistan. This is not the real reason.
The real reason is that in war and peace, Turkey is a critical
strategic ally and economic partner of the US and Israel, and the US
and Israel do not want to risk upsetting this ally, so, with help in
Congress from the ADL, AJC and the like, they enforce the lie that
there was no Armenian genocide. Or if there was a genocide, it is not
clear who was responsible. Or if it is clear that the Ottoman Empire
was responsible, it is not clear that Turkey should inherit the guilt.
"This is a matter for historians to decide," goes the Israeli and
American Jewish establishment line.
The historians, however, decided a long time ago. More than 125
Holocaust scholars – including Elie Wiesel, the late Raul Hilberg,
Deborah Lipstadt, Daniel Goldhagen and Yehuda Bauer – have signed
ads in The New York Times demanding acknowledgment that the Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against the Armenians.
Wiesel testified in Congress on behalf of such a resolution. The
International Association of Genocide Scholars – which is studded
with Jewish names – holds the same view as a matter of course.
SOMEWHERE around three reputable historians disagree. They are led
by Bernard Lewis, who may be the world’s foremost scholar of Islam,
but who, among world scholars, is certainly the foremost enthusiast
of Turkey.
There are probably fewer historians who doubt the Armenian genocide
than there are scientists who doubt evolution. Maybe we should reserve
judgment on evolution, too.
A key Jewish argument for continuing this policy of denial is that
breaking it would endanger the 20,000 or so Jews of Turkey, whose
leaders have warned against crossing their government on this matter.
But if Israel and its lobby in Washington really believe this, then
they’ve as much as sentenced the 25,000 Jews in Iran to death, haven’t
they? Is anyone in the Israeli government or AIPAC suggesting that
they lower the volume on Iran for the sake of Iranian Jewry? So the
Turkish Jewish community isn’t a real reason for denying the Armenian
genocide, it’s another excuse.
The one and only genuine moral argument for public Jewish denial
of the Armenian genocide is the Jewish people’s historical debt to
Turkey. For 500 years, up through the time of the Nazis, Turkey gave
life-saving refuge to Jews running from persecution, and did so in
a welcoming spirit.
This historical truth can’t be denied, either. And it presents
Jews with a heavy moral dilemma. For Jews to recognize the Armenian
genocide is an undeniable act of disloyalty to Turkey, to which we
owe an unpayable debt of gratitude.
But I don’t think it’s terminal disloyalty, I don’t think it’s
unforgivable disloyalty. With time, it’s not something that can’t be
made up for with other acts of Jewish or Israeli gratitude.
Denying the Armenian genocide, on the other hand, is an unforgivable,
terminal betrayal not only of the Armenians, but of truth, of decency,
of the legacy of the Holocaust, of ourselves as Jews, of ourselves
as people.
What’s more, the Jewish moral debt to Turkey is at best a secondary
motive in Israel’s and the Israel lobby’s campaign of genocide
denial. Their overriding concern is Israeli security and economics.
Which, of course, is a 100% legitimate concern. Security and economics
are the primary concern of every nation, and Israel is part of the
family of nations. But the thing is this: If Israel and the Israel
lobby can pursue practical self-interest alone, they can’t insist
that the rest of the world act like Righteous Gentiles.
They can’t go on intoning that "the world stood silent" during
the Holocaust when they – the leaders of the Jewish world – act as
front-line enforcers of silence on the Armenian genocide.
It’s one or the other: morality or realpolitik. As a nation of the
world, Israel, along with its lobby in Washington, have always chosen
realpolitik. What they may not know, however, is that by now the
world sees through them.
The world doesn’t take seriously what an Israeli leader or an American
Jewish macher has to say about the Six Million, not when it sees that
same Israeli leader and American Jewish macher shushing everyone over
the murders of 1.5 million other innocents.
Thankfully, those politicians are not the only Jewish voices on
the Armenian genocide, or on the Holocaust. There is also Wiesel,
Lipstadt, Goldhagen, Bauer, Congressman Adam Schiff, Yossi Sarid and
many, many others.
Either you value truth first, or you value power first. Every Jew,
every person, makes the choice.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
