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Confronting The Denialist Jewish Lobby: Mission Accomplished?

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  • Confronting The Denialist Jewish Lobby: Mission Accomplished?

    CONFRONTING THE DENIALIST JEWISH LOBBY: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?
    By David Boyajian

    www.hairenik.com/weekly/2009/04/01/confr onting-the-denialist-jewish-lobby-mission-accompli shed/?ec3_listing=posts
    April 1, 2009

    By any objective measure, the two-year-old campaign against the
    Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) denial of the Armenian Genocide has
    been a spectacular success. The ADL, the Jewish American community,
    Israel, and Turkey were taken by surprise and shaken to their
    roots. As shockwaves from the campaign spread, Turkey's ambassador
    to Israel cut short his vacation to return to Tel Aviv to complain
    to Israeli leaders.

    Grassroots Armenians in Massachusetts have flexed, and continue
    to flex, their political muscles as never before, targeting the
    Massachusetts Municipal Association and the elected officials and
    human rights commissions of 14 cities: Arlington, Bedford, Belmont,
    Easton, Lexington, Medford, Needham, Newburyport, Newton, Northampton,
    Peabody, Somerville, Watertown, and Westwood.

    As a result, they have all ceased sponsoring No Place for Hate (NPFH),
    the alleged anti-bias program created, trademarked, and funded by
    the ADL.

    Successful Results

    Among campaigns initiated by Armenian Americans, only the Congressional
    genocide resolution has generated more exposure and controversy.

    The campaign has spawned thousands of news reports, editorials,
    commentaries, radio interviews, and letters in non-Armenian media in
    the U.S. and around the world.

    The battle against the ADL and NPFH has underscored to non-Armenians
    that the genocide issue directly affects them, their cities, and
    their schools.

    Armenian Americans now have a louder voice in their communities. And
    those who deny the genocide have been put further on the defensive.

    Exposing the ADL's holocaust hypocrisy reportedly helped to push the
    House Foreign Affairs Committee into approving the Armenian Genocide
    Resolution two years ago.

    The campaign is the main reason why recent news reports on the
    strained relations between Turkey and Israel refer to the Jewish
    lobby's collusion with Turkey in genocide denial.

    Other denialists, such as the American Jewish Committee and B'nai
    B'rith, have also been exposed.

    Armenian Leaders Fall Short

    Sadly, outside Massachusetts, Armenians and lobbying organizations such
    as the Armenian National Committee of America and Armenian Assembly
    of America have done little to defend Armenians and others against
    the ADL's denialism and programs. This is a major failure.

    Even in Massachusetts, the Armenians who have been fighting the ADL
    are mostly grassroots activists and several ANCA leaders. With rare
    exceptions, our so-called Armenian leaders in politics, academia,
    business, journalism, law, medicine, and the Church have remained
    shamefully silent and uninvolved. The reasons? Laziness and, in my
    opinion, an unwarranted fear of criticizing a Jewish organization.

    The fact is that the Massachusetts campaign has drawn enormous support
    from non-Armenians, many of them Jews: human rights commission members,
    city officials, journalists, academicians, and more.

    Armenians must not permit genocide denial, whether by a Turkish,
    Jewish, or any other kind of group.

    The ADL and America

    As Americans, Armenians have a wider responsibility to expose the ADL
    and similar organizations that falsely claim to espouse "human rights."

    ADL programs besides NPFH, such as World of Difference (WOD), have
    infiltrated thousands of cities, workplaces, law enforcement agencies,
    and public schools, the latter often attended by Armenian American
    children.

    When Glendale's Hoover High issued an invitation to WOD, the Armenian
    community put a stop to it, but only-only-because it was aware of the
    campaign in Massachusetts. WOD even tried to penetrate St. Stephen's
    Armenian Elementary School in Watertown.

    Were it not so damaging to society, it would be laughable that an
    organization that conspires with Turkey to cover up mass murder is
    strong-arming countless American citizens-children, teachers, workers,
    law enforcement officers, and ordinary citizens-into its "anti-hate"
    and "tolerance" training programs.

    Some ADL members who conduct these programs may be well
    intentioned. But the national ADL leadership is not. It is clear,
    particularly given its collusion with Turkey, that the ADL is a
    political, not a civil or human rights, group. Its "human rights"
    programs are a cover-a way to influence and buy unsuspecting Americans
    who will later support, or at least not criticize, the ADL's foreign
    and domestic agenda.

    Incredibly, ADL agents have also conducted illegal surveillance of
    African Americans, Latinos, labor unions, and others. The police
    chief of Arlington, Mass., has even admitted that the ADL provides
    police with investigative intelligence that they cannot legally
    obtain themselves.

    One can surmise, therefore, that the ADL may operate covertly against
    Armenian Americans.

    Continuing the Campaign

    There are compelling moral and practical reasons why Armenians must
    continue this campaign.

    Human rights experts say that the Armenian Genocide was-and denial of
    any genocide is-an offense against humankind as a whole. All people,
    therefore, Armenians included, have a responsibility to confront
    denialists.

    Even Israelis acknowledge that Israeli-Turkish accords include an
    unwritten proviso that top Jewish lobbying groups such as the ADL
    work against Armenians on virtually every issue of concern to Armenian
    Americans, such as military aid to Azerbaijan and Turkey.

    According to political analyst Harut Sassounian, for example, AJC
    and B'nai B'rith officials issued "a public pledge to help enact
    pro-Azeri and pro-Turkish legislation and counter Armenian and Greek
    initiatives in the U.S. Congress."

    Exposing the holocaust hypocrisy of the ADL and other organizations
    reduces their credibility and, therefore, their ability to damage
    Armenian American interests.

    Even locally, ADL members have worked against Armenian interests. A
    top ADL officer and well-connected Boston figure, Peter Meade, has made
    himself the main opponent of the proposed Armenian Heritage Park-which
    includes a genocide plaque-on Boston's Rose Kennedy Greenway.

    Will Armenian Americans confront organizations that harm not just
    their interests, but also those of the wider American society? In
    Massachusetts, yes. Elsewhere, it remains to be seen.
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