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Jewish American Support for Turkey Declining
Wed, Jun 9 2010
By:Armenian Weekly
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.''
From: A. Papazian
Wed, Jun 9 2010
By:Armenian Weekly
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.''
From: A. Papazian