Опять Дождь из Плевков

[Sari Galin]

Spit-Rain Again

This time the much-coveted award goes to a duet-- the American Janus, er, Judas, er, Jewish Committee (AJC) and Abe Foxman of ADL infamy. You'll remember Spit-Rain comes from the Armenian saying, “He's so shameless, if you spit in his face, he'd think it's rain”.

Originally, the Anti-Defamation League's National Director was going to be the solo recipient, earned for the choice title of his recently published book “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control”. But April 24th and other timely matters delayed the bestowal this high honor. Then, the AJC issued its Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) Message, comprised of fully 16 “We remember” and “We shall never forget” declaratory statements. Despite its pledge to “never forget those who perished”, this outfit seems to have forgotten its Executive Director's, David A. Harris, mealy-mouthed August 2007 statement titled “Truth and Consequences: Armenians, Turks, and Jews” and later, in February, its Director of Strategic Studies', Barry Jacobs, desultory and insulting response to Aram Hamparian (ANCA Executive Director) when he pressed Jacobs on AJC's position. All these people's convoluted spouting is, to use Foxman's word, “tantamount” to denial. Please forgive those of us who have difficulty distinguishing “tantamount” from the real deal.

In his statement, Harris twisted himself more than a pretzel, trying to justify the AJC's long silence on Armenian Genocide resolutions in Congress. He used the siren-song of “Armenian-Turkish dialogue”, a favorite theme among duplicitous deniers (see also TARC, U.S. Department of State, President of the U.S., etc.). Kinda-sorta nudging the Armenian Genocide from memory is OK, but not the Holocaust, you see. Jacobs' response was even worse (see contemporary news items for the full texts).

As for flabby Foxman, ever flexible and fluid, he's not in a position to make statements regarding historical matters and the Congress of the United States is no place to assess whether anything is properly labeled genocide, unless of course it has to do with the Holocaust and legal wrangling with German and other European companies who benefited at Jews' expense. Although, he ought to know something about “the deadliest lies” I suppose, since denying genocide is as deadly a lie as I can imagine.

Can you fathom the unbridled, boundless, and licentious temerity of these characters? They get to cooperate with a genocidal and denialist state to pursue what they erroneously perceive as their nation's best interest. Everyone else be damned, even if that lewd relationship puts these deniers in conflict with the majority of their own people's consciences.

Once again, with apologies to Jonathan Swift, I'd like to make a modest proposal. As I was considering how to endow this pair with the SpitRain Award, a thought struck me. My hopes, for a change, were not dashed on the shores of denial. I got online and looked up David Duke, you know, the “ex”-Klansman (and their former Grand Wizard), former Louisiana State Representative and presidential candidate, who has a lot to say about Jews in his conspiracy theories. Interestingly, he also has his opinions regarding the Armenian Genocide and favors recognition.

So perhaps to give our SpitRain awardees a taste of their own medicine, we should make common cause with Duke and his ilk. Later we could argue pragmatism, real world choices between bad and worse, our not being historians, the need for dialogue between Jews on the one side and Nazis, Ku Kluxers, and miscellaneous other racist/anti-Jewish groups. Foxman, Harris, Jacobs, the ADL, and AJC would understand the necessity of the “realpolitik” we'd be playing, wouldn't they? Should I spell out the parallelism? Davids such as Duke and Irving are to Jews what Turkey is to Armenians. Is that too complicated to grasp?

Let's keep working to paint glaringly bright red “D”-s on these shameless Turkish tools' foreheads.

Garen Yegparian