Israel & The Armenian Genocide

Israel has always tiptoed around the whole idea of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1918, in which 1.5 million Armenians perished cruelly at the hands of Ottoman Turks. You’d think that if anybody could understand, and sympathize, about genocide, it should be the Jews, since they suffered their own genocide during the Nazi holocaust, right?

Not exactly.

Israel needs to maintain good relations with Turkey –-for its stuffed grape leaves, beach resorts and to have at least one wary Muslim “friend”-- and it doesn’t want to do anything, or say anything, that might put the large community of Turkish Jews there in danger. When asked about the Armenian genocide, Israeli diplomats tend to glance away sheepishly and mutter “atrocities” and “massacre” instead of the G-word.

But last week, a prominent Jewish organization broke ranks. The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based watchdog group which pounces on anything that might be anti-Semitic, was under pressure to back Armenian-Americans who are trying to get U.S. Congress to pass a resolution at last recognizing what a majority of historians say was the 20th century’s first act of genocide.

First, a regional ADL executive was fired when he told longtime ADL Director Abe Foxman that the organization’s eyes-averted stance was “morally reprehensible”. But then, apparently nagged by doubts and the outcry over the sacking among American Jews, Foxman consulted with his “mentor” Israeli Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel who convinced him to reconsider, publicly, which Foxman did.

It’s doubtful that the Israeli government will revise its policy towards the Armenian genocide any time soon. To do so would anger the Turks terribly. And so, once again realpolitik trumps morality.

By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem