JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

10/06/10 07:54 PM

I love watching Mr. Kampeas squirm and employ NewSpeak while defending The Lobby’s moral failings. Anyone who followed the gyrations of organizations like the ADL at the time knows the allegations that Hitchens and Sullivan make to be true. But now Kampeas calls them “counterfactual.” Well, here are some facts.

Here’s Abe Foxman reversing the ADL’s position on the Turkish genocide and calling on Congress to side-step it:

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Mise_00/5114_00.htm

10/06/10 08:06 PM

Hey David—thanks for finding this! It helps reinforce my point: ADL in Augiust 2007 urged Congress not to pass the resolution—it passed anyway on October.

10/06/10 08:17 PM

Ron how about this report from the Forward?

http://www.forward.com/articles/126556/

For decades, Armenian-American groups have pushed the resolution, which on March 4 narrowly passed the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sparking a harsh backlash by Turkey. Some Jewish members of Congress have been among its prominent supporters. But Jewish organizations have marshaled their political clout and moral capital on the issue of genocide to lobby Capitol Hill against the resolution in years past, moved in large part by Turkish warnings that its passage could harm Turkish-Israeli ties.

That warning appears destined to remain academic. In response to strong pressure from the Obama administration, congressional leaders have reportedly agreed to refrain from scheduling the measure for a full congressional vote. But the shift in stance by Jewish groups was notable for its reflection of shifts in the Middle East and of the balance between moral considerations and realpolitik.

This year, no major Jewish groups lobbied for or against the resolution. As Jess Hordes, Washington director of the Anti-Defamation League, put it, “Inevitably, for some people the enthusiasm isn’t as great as it was in the past, because of concerns about Turkey’s policy on Israel.”

10/06/10 08:21 PM

Can we say it passed because some members of the lobby simply did not feel any more like standing up for Turkey? And conversely had they stood up, as in previous years, the resolution would not have seen a light of day. And et’s not forget that this resolution is the prelude to the full house vote which never seems to take place because it is there that lobby’s full force is on display and not just in a committee or a subcommittee?

10/06/10 08:31 PM

Bugmenot—I’m saying this sentence is factually wrong:
“In previous years, that vote had gone the other way.”
In 2007, it went the same way.
Thanks-

10/07/10 12:03 AM

I wrote to Andrew Sullivan this morning and linked to your article from yesterday.  Does that at least count as constructive knowledge that he’s erred?

10/07/10 12:22 AM

Ron, maybe you should revise the title of your article then for it to reflect your comment above about the factuality of Hitchens’ claim rather than the spirit of his argument. He may have indeed erred in this instance but your article goes farther than an attempt to refute a claim of fact by attempting to render the entire debate about the conflation of the pro-Israel and pro-Turkey lobbying interests to gut the Armenian Genocide resolution.

10/09/10 04:12 PM

Armenian-Americans have been struggling for decades to get Congress to pass a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.  Pretty benign stuff you would think.  Unfortunately, we’re still waiting.  Meanwhile the few survivors who are still alive (most approaching their 100th birthday) pass away each year without bearing witness to this acknowledgment of their suffering and loss.  The cruelty of this cannot be understated and shocks the conscience.  Every one of you who has posted a comment here knows that AIPAC, the ADL, JINSA, and virtually every other influential political Jewish organization has lobbied strongly against passage of such a resolution.  Why?  That’s where the real story lies.  Perhaps somebody should write about that instead of nitpicking red herrings like Kampeas does here.

10/11/10 01:22 PM

The Armenian claims of genocide are based on prejudiced (read racist) and dishonest history:  prejudiced because it ignores Turkish dead at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries; and dishonest because it ginores the six T’s of the conflict that encompass a spectrum from propaganda, agitation, terror, revolts, treason, territorial conflicts, wars, and more, in that order.  When you strip a conflict from its responsiblke opposing views, what you have is not the truth, but perception.

10/11/10 05:03 PM

I was wondering when Ergun would show up.  Nothing can be written regarding the Armenian Genocide, no matter how tangential, without Ergun showing up to engage in Turkey’s obligatory denial.  Some Turks, Ergun being at the top of the list, find it maddening that the Armenian Genocice is among the few instances in history where the victors have not been able to rewrite history.  Some truths are too obvious to rewrite or cover-up.  The disappearance in just 3 short years of a single ethnic group from their ancestral homeland is tough to explain away no matter how hard folks like Ergun try.