Chilling Account of Anti-Armenian Lobbying by Jewish American Groups
WASHINGTON—On June 8, the Washington Times published a revealing article about the deterioration of Jewish-Turkish relation and the role Jewish American organizations played in supporting Turkish interests, killing Armenian genocide legislation, and undermining Armenia’s economic livelihood in the U.S. Congress.
The article by Eli Lake, titled “American Jewish community ends support of Turkish interests on Hill,” begins with a chilling account of how the Armenian Genocide Resolution was killed in 2000:
In October 2000, the government of Turkey had a problem.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert had promised to bring a resolution commemorating the Armenian genocide to the floor for a vote, a move that Ankara said would be a slap in the face to a NATO ally.
The Turks called up Keith Weissman, a senior researcher from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and asked him to intervene.
Mr. Weissman said in an interview this week that AIPAC lit up the phones and managed at the last minute — with the help of the State Department — to persuade President Clinton himself to write a letter to Mr. Hastert saying a vote on the resolution would cause strategic damage to U.S. interests.
The last-minute push worked. Mr. Hastert removed the resolution from the floor, and the full Congress has yet to take up the matter to this day.
According to Barry Jacobs, the American Jewish Committee’s former director of strategic studies in the office of government and international affairs, “The major Jewish organizations decided in 2008 that the question of the Armenian genocide resolution was so sensitive we would no longer take public and private positions to oppose it.”
The article also notes how “In Congress, the Jewish organizations lobbied for an oil pipeline from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a pipeline that bypasses Turkey’s rival Armenia entirely.”
The author notes that the support for Turkey by Jewish-American organizations is in decline. He quotes Morris Amitay, the former executive director of AIPAC who has also represented Turkey, as saying: “If someone asked me now if I would try to protect Turkey in Congress, my response would be, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’”
It’s about time!
Well it’s about friking time the jews saw the light. We better jump on this chance to get in tight with them. If they actually gave support to the Genocide resolution it wouldn’t take long to pass it into law and teach it in the schools. Maybe even a network TV drama about it.
Just a great theater.
Pathetic…
Please, no ‘jumping’ on this chance, no rush, no premature evaluation of what’s going on. No one of us is aware what’s going on at the bottom of the iceberg. Just keep your eyes on how the things develop withour jumping inot conclusions. IF this is, indeedm the chance for the Armenians, and not just another Turkish=Jewish theatrical show, Israelis themselves will indicate it to us…
Found this on the website of the Russian online news agency http://izrus.co.il/:
Israeli professors from Bar-Ilan University, and Professor Ofer Israeli from Georgetown University in Washington, sent a letter to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and an end to the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.
Despite the signed agreements the Turkish authorities decided to join Israel’s rampant enemies, calling for extermination of the Israeli nation, the letter says. Now it is time to act without any restrictions. First, the Israeli government can publicly back Armenians’ demand to recognize the Armenian Genocide by Turks. The letter says that Israel has no interests that would prevent it from assuming a specific position on the Armenian Genocide. Finally, the Israeli government can make the morally right decision on the matter, urging Turkey to admit its responsibility for the Genocide.
The professors believe that Turkey must make a compromise on occupation of Northern Cyprus. In their address to Netanyahu the authors also recalled Kurds and their aspiration to establish national autonomy in the south-east of Turkey.
As much as I understand why Armenians in general, are viewing everything in regards to Turkey, through the prism of Genocide recognition, there is no basis for the claims made here. Not that it means much for Turkey one way or another, American Jews’ support for Turkey has actually been on the rise, as they oppose to Netanyahu’ government’s policies which Turkey called them out. Turkey is against the legal term of genocide but agrees with the atrocities in the waning days of Ottoman Empire. They should officially accept the genocide term apologize (as many already did) for the Ottoman’s, negotiate reparations and move forward. But when that happens, what will happen to various cottage industries in the world to spread animosity towards Turkey? Despite some of the geopolitical issues (Nagorno Karabakh/Azerbaijan), reality of economic relationships in the region which are making the process difficult, I believe Turkey and Armenia are on the road for normalizing relationships soon.
ArakatsBear, Well wrote,based on your ideas,lets to
make funny dramma on the stage until Genocide Recognization
get into law!!!!!!
There has got to be more to this story. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have done this every year since the Reagan administration. Let’s find out all of the details and publicize them widely, and then get the Israeli government and Jewish organizations to come out firmly in our support.
After years of stabbing us in the back on the genocide and other key issues like Karabagh, no one should trust them at this point, least of all, Armenia or Armenians. If anyone falls for their opportunistic ploys, then you deserve what you get, which I guarantee will not be pleasant. Remember, leopards don’t change their spots, nor tigers their stripes. To attempt to use the genocide for their own benefit under the current circumstances is truly disgusting.
The Jewish-American lobbying for Turkey was done only for the sake of Israel’s relations with it’s only ally in the middle east. It certainly does not reflect the general Jewish/Israeli public recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The Israeli dancing to the Turkish flute must stop. A country that fights the Jewish Holocaust denial by Iran, must not allow a similar denial of the Armenian Holocaust by Turkey. It’s a shameful mistake and now is the time for Israel to cut its relations with Turkey!
Please read this story again, closely: this article makes it very clear who was doing this for a very long period of time….American-Jewish organizations who get massive amounts of financial support from the ‘general Jewish-Israeli public’. And, this requires no speculation or accusations, they freely admit it, which is akin to bragging. So please don’t try to put sugar on a piece of rotten fruit. It won’t work. The idea that these organizations don’t represent their supporter is just ridiculous. They could have all stopped giving money if they didn’t like what Barry Jacobs, Foxman and Weissman were doing against Armenians and the genocide, but they didn’t. Remember that.
We must be cautious.
Many Jews (such as Eli Lake) and Israelis are using the Armenian genocide issue solely to strike back at Turkey. See? All of the information Lake brings up was known very well by us (and him) long ago, but I doubt that he wrote about any of this before he got angry at Turkey (over the Gaza ship incident) and decided now was the time to use Armenians as a battering ram against his beloved Turkey.
Am I happy that the article has been written? Yes. But that does not blind me to the fact that the relationship between Israel and Turkey, which has always been mainly at the military level, has not changed, apparently. In truth, we simply do not know. Ask yourself this: why hasn’t one Jew in the entire world objected to the Woodrow Wilson Center’s award to Davutoglu coming up on June 17? Let us at least realize how we are being used.
Bravo, Dave!
What prostitutes. Anything for a buck.
Since the confrontation between Turkey and Israel there have been many articles on the web critical of Turkey that reference the Armenian Genocide. Turkey may have shot itself in the foot; all its evil history is hatching out.
Hye, it appears the Turks and the Israelis deserve each other… both know what their own goals are – eliminate any peoples to gain lands… Manooshag
Neither Jews nor Turks are the Armenian’s friend. The sooner we all understand that basic fact the better. Justice comes from within us not from a phony opportunistic bunch of denialist who care more for getting even with Turkey then taking a true moralistic stance on the issue.
If anyone did anything like this to oppose Jewish/Israeli interests anywhere in the world they would be deemed/branded anti-Semitic. I think it is reasonable to write that there are those, notably Jewish among others, who are anti- Armenian and perhaps anti-Christian.
I think the Jews are our friend, at least the rank and file common man you see on the street for sure. Almost all I’ve met empathize with our suffering under the muslims. And most of them had a very bad taste in their mouth to see their leaders kiss the dajiks’ asses. They are as close to us as they can possibly be to any people. THe truth is though, they really are just obsessed with themselves more than any other people I know. My grandfather got his first mortgage loan only with the help of the jews. MOst of them identify with us intensely, becuase of similar suffering under muslims. It’s just that one dirty element among them that does turkey’s dirty work in washington which gives them a bad name among armenians. Well, hopefully that will change now.
This is nothing more than a temporary lover’s spat. Israel and Turkey’s love runs deep as does their hatred of Armenians. This means nothing. They will be snuggling again in no time.
Well, if that turns out to be the case, the turks will have a LOT of explaining to do with the islamic nations they are suddenly getting cozy with.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/10/to-everything-a-season/
Wake up AA, we didn’t suffer under the muslims; we suffered under the turks. Your grandfather’s mortgage notwithstanding, the rank and file Jews have NO love for the Armenians. They identify with no one but themselves (and the turks). Study your own history. Study the role of Zionism and the Jews in the genocide. As for the mortgage, that was just business.
Andrew Bostom has a substantial report on Erdogan and AKP’s ties to IHH and jihadists at http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2010/06/13/%E2%80%9Cmas-kom-ya%E2%80%9D-erdogan-and-his-ur-jew-hatred/
Irrespective of whether we like to dislike Israel we are entering the opportunity to get Jewish support for the Armenian Genocide resolution in the US. We also need to understand clearly and without emotion the reality of Turkeys slide into an Islamic state and the background of AKP leaders. The facts are chilling. Ataturk’s Turkey was no friend of Armenia, but the evolving Islamic Turkish state is a much greater danger to Armenia.