THE HUFFINGTON POST: KICK TURKEY OUT OF NATO!
Panorama.am
18/06/2010
In the context of Turkish-Israeli clash Jewish lobby of the US is
behaving not the way it used to, i.e. it has emerged as supporter of
the Armenian genocide resolution.
However, experts think, the bash-Turkey movement did not start with
the flotilla incident. It began when Turkey spoke out against Israel’s
bloody invasion of Gaza.
The Huffington Post published an article by MJ Rosenberg, Senior
Foreign Policy Fellow, Media Matters Action Network. He recalls the
meetings of Jewish lobby representatives with Turks, some of which
he also attended.
“The lobbyists — from AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee and the
Anti-Defamation League — were essentially telling the Turks that if
they didn’t shape up, it would affect Turkey’s standing in Congress.
She also said that they hinted that any Turkish distancing from Israel
could lead to the lobby dropping its opposition to the Armenian
Genocide Resolution, then pending in Congress. And that would mean
that the resolution would pass.
That resolution, pushed by the Armenian community, basically states
that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
95 years ago was genocide and should be recognized as such by the
United States.
I never understood why the Turks had such strong feelings on this
subject. True, Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire (or,
at least, part of the empire), but modern Germany is the successor
to Nazi Germany and only crazy people blame today’s Germany for the
crimes of the Nazis.
The lobby’s position on the resolution was utterly cynical,” he writes.
“Turkey was Israel’s friend. But why should that require the lobby
using its clout to prevent the United States from memorializing the
killing of a million-and-a-half people?
That seemed especially unsavory considering how strongly Jews feel
about Holocaust denial. And, after all, it was Adolf Hitler himself
who cited the Armenian slaughter when he reassured his aides that
Nazi Germany could indeed get away with the murder of millions of
innocent Jews:
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Those words are inscribed on a wall in the United States Holocaust
Museum.
Nonetheless, the lobby backed the Turkish position. It pushed the
view that the Armenians who were slaughtered had died in the context
of war.”
“But now, the Netanyahu government and its lobby are having a change of
heart. According to media reports in Israel and the United States, the
lobby may indeed drop its opposition to the resolution. The Netanyahu
government, the lobby, the neocons, and their acolytes in the media,
have decided that Turkey needs to be punished for its opposition to
the Gaza blockade and its role in the flotilla fiasco,” MJ Rosenberg
writes, and asks: “Say what? Because the Turks no longer are doing
what Israel wants, they should be thrown out of NATO?” The answers:
“NATO membership makes Turkey a formal ally of the United States.
Expect the lobby to get the Armenian genocide resolution passed at
the next opportunity — but not out of recognition of the demands
of history, or empathy with Armenians, or because passage is long
overdue. Congress will pass it because the lobby and Netanyahu want
us to. It’s all about sticking it to Turkey, our NATO ally, which
has the temerity not to clear its policies with the American Jewish
Committee and AIPAC.
Both the Netanyahu government and its lobby are operating with callous
disregard for U.S. interests. But what else is new?
As for Israel’s interests, they are only invoked to rally support
from people who would otherwise understand that Israel’s interest is
just a political football in this game. For Netanyahu, the game is
political survival. For the lobby, it is throwing its weight around
in Washington. For members of Congress, it is pleasing donors.
The Israeli people and the Palestinians — and, now, the Turks and
Armenians too — are mere pawns,” he writes.
From: A. Papazian