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Armenian killings: Leave its discussion to another day
BY: MARCY OSTER Israel Commentator
Between a rock and a hard place.
That’s exactly where Israel stands when it comes to the issue of calling the killing of more than one million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I a genocide.
The issue has come to the forefront since the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution nearly a month ago labeling the killings a genocide. As the resolution came closer to a vote of the full House, Jews on both sides sprang into action n dragging Israel into what should have remained an internal U.S. debate.
We have dodged a bullet for the time being, since congressional sponsors of the Armenian genocide resolution have decided to delay voting on the measure. (Thanks to the intercession of Israel and other allies, there were likely not enough votes to pass the measure. Moreover, there was concern over Turkey’s threats to disrupt U.S. military operations in Iraq.) But we Israelis should not fool ourselves into thinking the issue has gone away. Nor should it.
Still, now is perhaps not the best time for Israel to get dragged into this very emotional, gut-wrenching debate.
Turkey is Israel’s only friend in the Muslim world, and it has threatened severe repercussions should the U.S. Congress pass the resolution labeling the killings genocide.
Consider this analysis, for example, by Turkish foreign policy expert Bülent Aras, quoted in the Turkish Weekly Journal: “In the 1990s, when Turkish-Israel relations were being fostered, the idea behind their relations was that the Jewish lobby would support Turkey in the U.S. Plus the Jewish lobby’s help was seen as important in arming the Turkish military. Apparently, the lobby doesn’t side with Turkey on the (genocide) resolution issue, which is a most emotional one for Turkey. So the reason behind their relations has been disappearing. The relations have been questioned already.”
It sounds like the congressional resolution would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Couple that with the fact that Turkey is still pretty angry at Israel for flying over Turkish airspace on the way to destroy the nascent Syrian nuclear reactor in September and you have got one seriously angry “friend.”
On the other hand, Israel is certainly no stranger to genocide. Some say she was born because of genocide. So it is not surprising that in the days leading up to the cancelled congressional vote, survivors and their children in Israel n both of the Holocaust and of the Armenian massacres n were protesting the Jewish state’s (noncommittal) stance in front of Israel’s foreign ministry.
Israel has acknowledged that the Armenians were victims of massacres perpetrated by the Turks, but does not call it a genocide. The issue has come up in the Knesset several times in the last 20 years, most recently just a few months ago, when the discussion was shelved at the request of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in deference to Turkish sensibilities.
I am not prepared to say that what happened more than 70 years ago was a massacre, tantamount to genocide, or the real deal. But perhaps we can leave discussion of it to another day n when the U.S. does not need Turkey to help finish its job in Iraq, when Israel has more than one ally in the Muslim world, when Iran and Syria are not on the verge of going nuclear. I did not say it would be easy or fair, just perhaps practical.
That’s exactly where Israel stands when it comes to the issue of calling the killing of more than one million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I a genocide.
The issue has come to the forefront since the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution nearly a month ago labeling the killings a genocide. As the resolution came closer to a vote of the full House, Jews on both sides sprang into action n dragging Israel into what should have remained an internal U.S. debate.
We have dodged a bullet for the time being, since congressional sponsors of the Armenian genocide resolution have decided to delay voting on the measure. (Thanks to the intercession of Israel and other allies, there were likely not enough votes to pass the measure. Moreover, there was concern over Turkey’s threats to disrupt U.S. military operations in Iraq.) But we Israelis should not fool ourselves into thinking the issue has gone away. Nor should it.
Still, now is perhaps not the best time for Israel to get dragged into this very emotional, gut-wrenching debate.
Turkey is Israel’s only friend in the Muslim world, and it has threatened severe repercussions should the U.S. Congress pass the resolution labeling the killings genocide.
Consider this analysis, for example, by Turkish foreign policy expert Bülent Aras, quoted in the Turkish Weekly Journal: “In the 1990s, when Turkish-Israel relations were being fostered, the idea behind their relations was that the Jewish lobby would support Turkey in the U.S. Plus the Jewish lobby’s help was seen as important in arming the Turkish military. Apparently, the lobby doesn’t side with Turkey on the (genocide) resolution issue, which is a most emotional one for Turkey. So the reason behind their relations has been disappearing. The relations have been questioned already.”
It sounds like the congressional resolution would be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Couple that with the fact that Turkey is still pretty angry at Israel for flying over Turkish airspace on the way to destroy the nascent Syrian nuclear reactor in September and you have got one seriously angry “friend.”
On the other hand, Israel is certainly no stranger to genocide. Some say she was born because of genocide. So it is not surprising that in the days leading up to the cancelled congressional vote, survivors and their children in Israel n both of the Holocaust and of the Armenian massacres n were protesting the Jewish state’s (noncommittal) stance in front of Israel’s foreign ministry.
Israel has acknowledged that the Armenians were victims of massacres perpetrated by the Turks, but does not call it a genocide. The issue has come up in the Knesset several times in the last 20 years, most recently just a few months ago, when the discussion was shelved at the request of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in deference to Turkish sensibilities.
I am not prepared to say that what happened more than 70 years ago was a massacre, tantamount to genocide, or the real deal. But perhaps we can leave discussion of it to another day n when the U.S. does not need Turkey to help finish its job in Iraq, when Israel has more than one ally in the Muslim world, when Iran and Syria are not on the verge of going nuclear. I did not say it would be easy or fair, just perhaps practical.
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