Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community protest outside the Knesset following the Israeli government’s recent diplomatic agreement with Turkey, in demand that the State of Israel finally recognize the Armenian Genocide, at its 101st anniversary. (Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Hypocritical Jewish Organizations and the Armenian Genocide
By David Boyajian
“It’s all about the Benjamins [$100 bills], baby,” Tweeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in February. She was accusing super-wealthy AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) of bribing Congress into supporting Israel.
AIPAC, ADL (Anti-Defamation League), AJC (American Jewish Committee), B’nai B’rith, and Congress condemned Omar as anti-Jewish.
2,153 persons at JewsWithIlhan.org, though, defended her.
AIPAC can’t legally donate to politicians. Its Congressional Club members, however, must do so. AIPAC members ‘bundle’ individual political contributions. Some AIPAC officials head political action committees (PACs) which back candidates. And an AIPAC affiliate flies Congresspersons to Israel.
After Israel, Jewish organizations’ imperative is the Holocaust.
They’ve steered Holocaust legislation — regarding commemorations, education, monuments, museums, reparations, and war crimes — through Congress, state and foreign legislatures, and the U.N.
America has special Holocaust and Anti-Semitism envoys.
Diminishing/denying the Holocaust is a crime in many European countries.
Yet leading Jewish organizations have long diminished/denied the 1915–23 genocide Turkey committed against 1.5 million Christian Armenians on their ancient homeland.
Also, AIPAC, ADL, AJC, B’nai B’rith, and JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security of America) have colluded with Turkey to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in Congress. Demanding Holocaust legislation while thwarting recognition of another genocide is hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy.
“The Holocaust,” says Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, is often “an instrument of policy, not a moral compass.”
Turkish-Israeli-American Jewish collusion
Beginning in or before the 1980s, Turkey sought help against critics, including Armenian and Greek Americans, of its human rights abuses. Turkey’s then-ally Israel enlisted Jewish American organizations into defending Turkey. Jewish/Israeli/Turkish media have penned millions of words confirming this.
JINSA’s Yola Habif Johnston confessed in 2006 that AIPAC, AJC, B’nai B’rith, and her organization “have been working with the Turks” for more than 15 years. “The Jewish lobby has quite actively supported Turkey to prevent the so-called Armenian genocide resolution from passing.” ADL was similarly guilty.
In 2007–8, Massachusetts’ Armenian Americans confronted the ADL. Hundreds of principled Jewish and non-Jewish activists, scholars, journalists, and organizations throughout America and internationally approved of the Armenian-led campaign.
Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport, Newton, Northampton, Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, Westwood, and the Mass. Municipal Assoc. expelled ADL’s phony No-Place-for-Hate program.
Numerous Jews and Israelis have sympathized with Armenians more than have many Christians. Though Israel won’t acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, the Knesset’s Education Committee wants it to.
Three years ago, ADL finally recognized the Armenian Genocide but merely on a “blog.” And its pledge to boost Armenian resolutions remains unfulfilled. Too little, too late anyway. The ADL is certainly no civil/human rights group.
For example, in 1993-2002 the ADL settled two lawsuits and paid compensation to San Francisco after — among innumerable illegalities — spying on thousands of civil rights, labor, progressive, Democratic, Black, Latino, Arab, Asian, Jewish, anti-Apartheid, and LGBT organizations and individuals.
More genocide hypocrisy
In Turkey’s propaganda film Blonde Bride, AJC Director Barry Jacobs illogically claimed the Armenian massacres couldn’t be genocide since the Holocaust was “unique.” Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin, however, coined the word ‘genocide’ in 1944 and cited the Armenian massacres as a seminal genocide.
Jacobs once cruelly boasted that AJC’s stance on the Armenian Genocide was “b***s***.” AJC, he vowed, “will be Turkey’s friends officially in Congress.”
“Official” AJC-Turkish collusion probably violates the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
AJC board member and Maryland State Senator Cheryl Kagan once maliciously compared an Armenian Genocide resolution to designating a state cat.
According to Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres, AJC Executive Director David Harris is Jews’ “foreign minister.” Harris and AJC are allies of Azerbaijan (Turkey’s corrupt, repressive ally) and its Armenian-Genocide-denying tyrant, Pres. Ilham Aliyev.
AJC’s “Democratic values for all” motto rings hollow, especially as Harris proudly accepted the tyrant’s coveted “Order of Friendship” award.
Azerbaijan’s “lobby in the U.S.,” declared Aliyev, “is the Jewish community.”
Indeed, Boston-based Rasky Partners officially represents Aliyev’s brutal regime. CEO Larry Rasky is an ADL board member/honoree and Joe Biden adviser/fundraiser. Interestingly, Rasky’s friend, workmate, and fellow ADL board member Peter Meade, a Catholic, loudly opposed Boston’s Armenian Heritage Park.
Shamefully, many Jewish writers worldwide have been gratuitously slandering Armenian Americans and Armenia, all because Israel buys oil from and sells billions in weapons to Azerbaijan, Armenia’s adversary.
Only in 2015 did AJC say it would support U.S. acknowledgment of the Genocide. AJC’s promise remains unfulfilled. Too little, way too late.
AIPAC, revealed Turkish journalist Sedat Sertoğlu, once threatened House Speaker Dennis Hastert he’d lose “Jewish votes” if an Armenian Genocide resolution succeeded. Shimon Peres pushed President Clinton into stopping the resolution. Scholar Israel Charny blasted Peres: You’ve crossed “a moral boundary no Jew … should trespass … [your] denial of the Armenian Genocide [is] comparable to denials of the Holocaust.”
Investigations needed
Though Jewish groups aren’t solely at fault, their genocide hypocrisy and clout make them uniquely blameworthy.
Jewish organizations believe Holocaust diminishment/denial is anti-Semitism and, hence, “hate.” When those organizations diminish/deny the Armenian Genocide, are they not anti-Christian-Armenian “hate” groups?
Israeli-Turkish relations have soured. Jewish groups sold their souls for nothing.
Their opportunity to apologize, open their Turkish-related archives, and make reparations is gone.
Also gone is their credibility on civil/human rights and genocides.
Congress and state legislatures must now investigate and subpoena these two-faced organizations.
The author is a Massachusetts-based freelance journalist.