Турецко-Израильский развод после Газы

[Meltonian]

Suddenly, the Israel lobby discovers a genocide

I once tried to blow the whistle on the Israel lobby's denial of the Armenian Genocide -- and I had to leave my job

By Mark Arax

Some of the most powerful leaders in the American Jewish community have stepped forward in recent days to acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turkey.

On the surface, this would seem unremarkable. As victims of the Holocaust, Jews might be expected to stand beside the Armenians and their tragedy. After all, the massacres and death marches across Anatolia during the fog of World War I became a model for Hitler himself.

But this sudden embrace of the Armenian Genocide actually marks a shameless turnaround for the major American Jewish organizations. For decades, they have helped Turkey cover up its murderous past. Each year, the Israel lobby in the U.S. has played a quiet but pivotal role in pressuring Congress, the State Department and successive presidents to defeat simple congressional resolutions commemorating the 1.5 million Armenian victims.

Genocide denial is not a pretty thing, they now concede, but they did it for Israel. They did it out of gratitude for Turkey being Israel’s one and only Muslim ally.

Now the game has changed. Israel and Turkey are locked in a feud over the Palestine-bound flotilla that was intercepted on the high seas by Israel. Turkey is outraged over the killing of nine of its citizens on board. Israel is outraged that a country with Turkey’s past would dare judge the morality of the Jewish state.

So the Armenian Genocide has become a new weapon in the hands of Israel and its supporters in the U.S., a way to threaten Turkey, a conniver’s get-even: Hey, Turkey, if you want to play nasty with Israel, if you want to lecture us about violations of human rights, we can easily go the other way on the Armenian Genocide. No more walking the halls of Congress to plead your shameful case.

If I sound cynical about all this, maybe I am.

In the spring of 2007, I wrote a story that revealed how genocide denial had become a dirty little pact between Turkey and Israel and its lobby in the U.S.

The story, as it turned out, was my last story at the Los Angeles Times, the only story in my 20-year career that was killed on the eve of publication.

Three years later, I can still hear myself framing its contours to one of our editors in the Washington bureau:

A rift over genocide denial has begun to crack open inside the Jewish community. If you listen closely, you can hear the stirrings of a debate.

On one side were the conservative, Likud-devoted lions of the major Jewish organizations who championed the virtues of Turkey, the first Muslim country to formally recognize Israel. As long as Ankara continued to cooperate in Israeli military exercises and purchase Israeli war machines, it deserved special treatment. Israel itself had adopted an official policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. Its supporters in the U.S. were obliged to do the same.

On the other side were more progressive Jews who couldn’t stomach the notion that Holocaust survivors were working so diligently to erase the memory of another people’s genocide. How could Jewish leaders whose every sense was tuned to detect the Holocaust deniers in our midst, who had gone to the ends of the earth to hunt down Hitler’s henchmen, now enlist with the patrons of genocide?

It was the sort of hypocrisy that made the vow of "Never Again" sound exclusive, a shelter for just one.

My editor was intrigued. Here was an important and timely topic that no newspaper or magazine had ever covered. The fact that I was the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors didn’t seem to give him any pause. If nothing else, my ethnic background gave me a working knowledge of the issues and the players.

I knew that experts in the field of Holocaust studies recognized the Armenian Genocide as an antecedent with chilling echoes. And Jewish scholars were openly condemning Turkey’s long campaign of denial, seeing it as the psychological continuation of genocidal trauma.

But these same scholars were mostly silent when it came to the behind-the-scenes role that Israel and its lobby in the U.S -- the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, neoconservative think tanks and Bush administration hawks -- were playing in this denial.

This was the story I wanted to tell as the ceremonial bill went to committee that April -- the month that Armenians remember their martyrs.

The only caution from my editor was that I conduct all interviews on-the-record. "Unnamed sources aren’t going to work for this one," he said.

I drove down Wilshire Boulevard and knocked on the door of the Turkish Consulate. The diplomat in charge, a polished man in a three-piece suit, wondered how the events of 1915 could constitute a genocide if I, an Armenian, was standing literally before him.

“So both of your grandfathers survived, huh?” he said in an accuser’s tone.

I tracked down Yair Auron, the professor at the Open University of Israel who had authored the seminal 2003 book “The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide.”

He had written it out of shame, he said. "Denial of the Armenian Genocide in the Jewish Diaspora is closely connected to the policy of denial in Israel. This is nothing less than a betrayal of the moral legacy of the Holocaust."

Then I found my way to the equivocators and deniers who sat at the helms of the major American Jewish organizations. None was more blunt than Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League in New York. The Armenian Genocide had become his own convenient cudgel to keep Turkey in line.

Foxman had just returned from a meeting with Turkish military and government leaders to discuss pressuring Congress, the State Department and President Bush to turn back the genocide resolution once again.

"Our focus is Israel," he explained. "If helping Turkey helps Israel, then that’s what we’re in the business of doing."

But such a bottom line would seem an uncomfortable place for a Jewish leader to be when the question was genocide.

"Was it genocide?" he said. "It was wartime. Things get messy."

He questioned whether a bill in Congress would help "reconcile" the differences between Turks and Armenians, as though the whole thing was a marital spat that needed some calming down.

"The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn’t be the arbiter of that history. And I don’t think the U.S. Congress should be the arbiter, either."

He was lifting lines right out of the Turkish playbook. I almost had to revisit his website to make sure that the ADL was still in the business of fighting not only anti-Semitism but "bigotry and extremism" and "securing justice and fair treatment to all."

I pointed out that the genocide had already been documented as a fact by many prominent historians. And Congress recognizes all sorts of people's history. Resolutions commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, for instance.

"You’re not suggesting that an Armenian Genocide is the same as the Holocaust, are you?"

I tried to draw the parallels that the scholars had drawn, but Foxman saw it as an affront. The oneness of the Holocaust was being debased by Armenians looking for a piggyback ride.

"Are you Armenian?" he finally asked.

"Would it matter if I was?" I replied. “Black reporters cover civil rights. Latino reporters cover immigration. Jewish reporters write about Holocaust deniers. We’re journalists.”

I wrote the story and filed it. My editor in Washington was pleased. It landed on the weekend budget, a strong candidate for Page One.

The weekend came and went, but the story held. I called the editor and asked if there was a problem. He was sorry to say that the story had been killed -- on a last-minute order from the managing editor.

“But why?” I asked.

"Your byline," he said.

"My byline?”

Then it hit me. Even as the paper was nominating one of my other stories for a Pulitzer Prize, on this story I was an Armenian.

The official explanation was a beauty. The managing editor said I was not an objective reporter because I had once signed a petition stating that the Armenian Genocide was a historical fact.

I had never signed such a petition. But if I had, how did this prove bias? Our own style book at the Times recognized the genocide as a historical fact.

"Would you tell a Jewish reporter that he couldn’t write about Holocaust denial because he believed the Holocaust was a fact?” I asked.

His answer was to reassign my story to a colleague in Washington who covered Congress. That this reporter was Jewish -- and the story dealt with Jewish denial of the genocide -- didn’t seem to faze the managing editor. The colleague, who may not have had a choice in the matter, proceeded to gut my story. By the time he was done, there was not a single mention of Jewish denial.

After an ugly public fight, I left the paper. The managing editor was later pushed out when an internal probe showed that my story was factual and without bias.

These days, I find myself more than a curious observer of the new cold war that has broken out between Turkey and Israel and its supporters.

What to make of the rush of Jewish leaders -- from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington to a city councilman named Jack Weiss in Los Angeles -- coming forward in the past few weeks to divulge their role in genocide denial?

"Frankly, [it] was not becoming for Jews, given that we have likewise been victims of genocide," Weiss wrote in an inelegant piece in the Jewish Journal.

How to account for these sudden confessions? A pang of remorse? A cleansing of the soul? I’m afraid not. These aren’t confessions, at all. Rather, they are reminders of the debt Turkey owes Israel -- and they come with teeth bared.

Last week, four Jewish professors from Georgetown and Bar Ilan universities urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. Take that, Turkey!

How will Ankara react? Will fear of genocide recognition, which it considers a national security issue, eventually cause Turkey to soften its accusations of apartheid against Israel and become a compliant ally again?

And what about the Armenians and their lobby? Aren’t they guilty of their own cynicism for watching the flotilla feud and now thinking that the winds of geopolitics have finally blown their way? Will they cozy up to Jewish leaders suddenly eager to embrace their genocide? Or will they tell them "thanks but no thanks" and join Turkey in standing up for the Palestinian cause?

Only next April, the season of the return of the genocide resolution, will tell.

[Meltonian]

А это из коментов.

There isn't a single country, other than Turkey that has done more to attack, spy on and kill Armenians around the world than Israel. During the Lebanese Civil War Israelis actively armed and trained Phalanges mercenaries that attacked and killed Armenians in Bourj Hammoud. The 1984 invasion and destruction Beirut resulted in massive property destruction and depopulation of Armenian areas. Israeli attacks against Armenians in Lebanon have been so persistent for 3 decades that the Tashnak Party has aligned itself with Hezbollah after 3 decades of neutrality.

The Mossad has actively spied on Armenian Revolutionary groups for 5 decades and supplied their Intelligence to the Turkish MIT.

With "friends" like this we don't need Turkey as our enemy.

Raffi Hovenessian is a blithering idiot and Armenians will treat him as such.

[Арарат]

Партия "Наследие" инициирует "Караван Мира" по маршруту Афины-Стамбул-Карс-Гюмри (Армения)

Молодежное крыло армянской оппозиционной парламентской партии "Наследие" выступило с призывом к европейским, американским и другим международным организациям сформировать "Караван Мира" с гуманитарным грузом по маршруту Афины-Стамбул-Карс-Гюмри для оказания помощи наиболее нуждающимся слоям населения до сих пор не восстановленной зоны землетрясения 1988 года. Об этом говорится в сообщении, поступившем в ИА REGNUM Новости из пресс-службы Молодежно-студенческого союза "Айк" партии "Наследие.

Молодежное крыло "Наследия" выражает недоумение тем, что за разблокирование Сектора Газа борется Турция, которая закрыв в 1993 году армяно-турецкую границу, при молчаливом безразличии мировой общественности до сих пор держит в блокаде Армению.

"Турция, которая борется за разблокирование Сектора Газа и направляющая туда "Флотилию Свободы", должна прекратить незаконную блокаду Армении и открыть свои границы для "Каравана Мира", говорится в заявлении молодежного крыла "Наследия".

:crazysmile:

[Толерант]

Туркогитлер Эрдоган заблеял очередной ультиматум евреям

28.06.2010г

Премьер-министр Турции Реджеп Тайип Эрдоган в интервью канадскому изданию Toronto Star newspaper заявил, что для восстановления прежнего доверия в израильско-турецких отношениях Израиль должен выполнить четыре условия.

Израиль, по словам Эрдогана, в первую очередь должен принести извинения за рейд, который устроили израильские ВМС на турецком корабле, направлявшемся в составе гуманитарного конвоя "Флотилия свободы" в сектор Газа; выплатить компенсацию семьям погибших девяти граждан Турции и одного американца турецкого происхождения; согласится на международное расследование под эгидой ООН и снять эмбарго с сектора Газа.

Вопрос..

Это после встречи с Медведьев и сом ,или до , он задумал ?

[Москвичка S.]

Кстати, воздушное пространство Турции с сегодняшнего дня закрыто для Израиля. :closed:

Широко шагает Эрдоган, так держать! :stuff:

[Понч]

Это касается только к военной авиации.

[Гость Miaceq_hayeR]

В Израиле Турцию и ее премьер-министра Реджепа Тайипа Эрдогана «избивают» с помощью рекламных щитов. Как сообщает турецкая Internetajans, на рекламных щитах Тель-Авива размещены тяжкие обвинения в адрес Турции и Эрдогана.

На улицах столицы можно наткнуться на следующее заявление: «Эрдоган, 1,5 армян не могут видеть это послание».

Под упомянутым посланием некто Али Догройол оставил комментарий: «Эй, члены правящей партии, еще не решив армянский вопрос, вы превратили Израиль в нашего врага в угоду террористам из ХАМАС. Мне жаль вас. Инцидент с «Mavi Marmara» – дело рук партии Эрдогана».

[Злодиюка]

Израиль провел с Турцией первые переговоры после скандала с захватом израильскими военными судна с гуманитарной помощью, направлявшегося в сектор Газа.

Как сообщил BBC представитель Израиля, в «секретных переговорах» приняли участие министр иностранных дел Турции и глава министерства торговли Израиля.

Торгуете телом? (с)

[scorpion12]

Израиль провел с Турцией первые переговоры после скандала с захватом израильскими военными судна с гуманитарной помощью, направлявшегося в сектор Газа.

Как сообщил BBC представитель Израиля, в «секретных переговорах» приняли участие министр иностранных дел Турции и глава министерства торговли Израиля.

Торгуете телом? (с)

[Cepnyc]

Пранкстер, давай без «красивых» слов...

[Dedo]

Израиль выплатит компенсации участникам турецкой флотилииArmenia Today [ 02.07.2010 | 12:11 ] Политика , ТурцияИзраиль намерен выплатить компенсации некоторым участникам флотилии "Мармара" и извиниться перед ними. Такое сообщение опубликовала турецкая газета Hurryiet.

Компенсации и извинения перед участниками "флотилии мира" входят в список требований, выдвинутых Турцией в ходе тайной встречи министра национальной инфраструктуры Израиля Биньямина Бен-Элиэзер с турецким министром иностранных дел Ахметом Давутоглу. Помимо этого, в качестве условия минимальной нормализации отношений с Израилем, Турция потребовала от Иерусалима согласиться на международное расследование инцидента, а также снять блокаду с сектора Газы. Второй канал ИТВ отмечает, что Израиль категорически отказался выполнить требования Турции до завершения расследования комиссией Тиркеля, однако по данным турецких СМИ, Бен-Элиэзер дал понять, что Израиль положительно взвесит требования Анкары, сообщает Курсор.

Встреча в Брюсселе стала первым контактом двух государств на правительственном уровне после инцидента с так называемой "флотилией свободы". Израильское телевидение первоначально сообщило, что встреча состоялась в Цюрихе. Телевизионный сюжет о встрече вызвал негативную реакцию со стороны израильского министра иностранных дел Авигдора Либермана. Он заявил, что не был информирован о планировавшихся переговорах, и подчеркнул, что поступок Бен-Элиэзера подрывает доверие к нему.

После этого пресс-служба Биньямина Нетаниягу выпустила заявление, согласно которому инициатива встречи исходила от Турции, а Либерман не был поставлен в известность о встрече "по техническим причинам". В чем они заключались, не уточнялось.

[Dedo]

Скандал между Либерманом и Нетаниягу затмил заявление генпрокурора о деле лидера НДИ

время публикации: 1 июля 2010 г., 08:16

Конфликт между главой МИД Авигдором Либерманом и премьер-министром Биньямином Нетаниягу из-за тайной встречи министра промышленности и торговли Биньямина Бен-Элиэзера с министром иностранных дел Турции Ахметом Давутоглу стал главной темой израильских СМИ.

Подробности конфликта были вынесены на первые полосы всех израильских газет и открывают утренние выпуски новостей на израильских радиостанциях.

- Турецкие СМИ: встреча Давутоглу и Бен-Элиэзера состоялась из-за США

- Либерман не собирается уходить из коалиции

Газета "Гаарец" пишет в связи со скандалом о высокой вероятности коалиционного кризиса. Политический обозреватель газеты Йоси Вертер отмечает, что в последние недели стиль поведения главы МИД резко изменился, что теперь Либерман напоминает самого себя времен предвыборной кампании, и вряд ли пропустит подобное оскорбление мимо ушей.

По словам Вертера, какими бы ни были причины изменения поведения Либермана, это не может не нервировать премьер-министра, опасающегося роста популярности председателя партии НДИ в правом лагере.

Обозреватель газеты "Едиот Ахронот" Шимон Шифер пишет, что Авигдор Либерман, при всей своей неоднозначности, известен, как человек слова. Поэтому до сих пор он поддерживал Нетаниягу, закрывая глаза на периодические вторжения на свою территорию со стороны Эхуда Барака. Однако закрывать глаза на трюк Бен-Элиэзера с турками главе МИД не имеет никакого смысла. По словам Шифера, вряд ли Либерман пойдет сейчас на раскол коалиции, однако можно быть уверенным, что в свое время он припомнит Нетаниягу эту историю.

В газете "Маарив" обозреватель Эли Барденштейн пишет, что реакция Авигдора Либермана вполне понятна - мало того, что встреча Бен-Элиэзера с Давутоглу состоялась без его ведома, она полностью противоречит позиции главы МИД.

Йоси Бейлин, в свою очередь, придерживается полностью противоположной точки зрения. В интервью радиостанции "Коль Ираэль" заявил, что встреча Бен-Элиэзера с Давутоглу за спиной Либермана абсолютно естественна, поскольку глава НДИ не является настоящим министром иностранных дел. По словам Бейлина, Нетаниягу наконец понял, что назначение Либермана на пост главы МИД является ошибкой, наносящей ущерб государству.

Конфликт Либермана и Нетаниягу практически полностью затмил выступление генерального прокурора Моше Ладора, заявившего, что прокуратура получила новые сведения по делу главы МИД. Газета "Маарив" проигнорировала это выступление. Газеты "Едиот Ахронот" и "Исраэль а-Йом" отметили в первую очередь критику Ладора в адрес государственного контролера Михи Линденштрауса и только газета "Гаарец" посвятила статью словам генпрокурора о деле Либермана.

По словам Моше Ладора, в последние недели прокуратура получила из-за границы дополнительные сведения, позволяющие составить более полное представление о деле Либермана и помочь принять решение о его дальнейшей судьбе. При этом Ладор не отметил, подкрепляют ли новые сведения обвинения против главы МИД или ослабляют. Газета "Гаарец", со ссылкой на собственные источники, утверждает, что новые сведения, полученные из Австрии, подкрепляют обвинения против Либермана.

[Понч]

Израиль выплатит компенсации участникам турецкой флотилииArmenia Today [ 02.07.2010 | 12:11 ] Политика , ТурцияИзраиль намерен выплатить компенсации некоторым участникам флотилии "Мармара" и извиниться перед ними. Такое сообщение опубликовала турецкая газета Hurryiet.

[Dedo]

Хуриет может идти на хуриет со своими предположениями)

02 июля 2010 года 21:40

Израиль не извинится за нападение на "флотилию мира"

Иерусалим. 2 июля. INTERFAX.RU - Израиль не намерен извиняться за нападение израильского спецназа на "флотилию мира", заявил, выступая по израильскому телевидению глава израильского правительства Биньямин Нетаньяху.

По его словам, "Израиль не может просить прощения за то, что сделали солдаты в целях самозащиты и для того, чтобы избежать линчевания со стороны обезумевшей толпы".

[Meltonian]

Despite Raid, Mostly Business as Usual for Israel and Turkey

By Dina Kraft

TEL AVIV — Since the deadly Israeli raid on the Gaza flotilla, Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Jerusalem and banned Israeli military planes from the country’s airspace, while its prime minister has called the Jewish state “a lying machine.” Israel, for its part, has warned its citizens not to travel to Turkey.

But in most other respects, it is still business as usual between the longtime allies.

A military and government delegation from Turkey is in Israel right now, its officers and soldiers rumbling through the sands of the Negev learning how to operate the same pilotless aircraft often used by Israel to hunt Palestinian militants in Gaza. They are there, said an Israeli official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, because the Israeli instructors who were training them in Turkey were called home after the flotilla raid.

Still, the $190 million deal for the drones has not been canceled. Nor have most of the civilian business dealings, from textiles to irrigation systems, that accounted for almost $3 billion in trade last year, business analysts said. “Everything is according to schedule,” the Israeli official said. “There are no changes. It’s business as usual.”

“There are good business contacts,” said Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Istanbul Biligi University. “The business community would like to see that continue.”

The investment and trade that continue beneath the surface are reminders of the deep and interconnected ties that Turkey and Israel have forged over the years as regional misfits — Israel as the Jewish state and Turkey as a Muslim country that straddles Europe and Asia. When the investments are years in the making, as most of the weapons deals are, and with Turkey relying on Israeli technical support, the ties are not so easily broken.

Hard figures are difficult to come by when it comes to defense contracts, but Lale Sariibrahimoglu, the Turkey correspondent for Jane’s Defense Weekly, says that Turkish military sources said that military trade between the countries totaled around $1.8 billion in 2007. Israel, she says, was second only to the United States as a source of military technology for Turkey.

Turkey maintains that full reconciliation with Israel is possible only if Israel apologizes for the raid on the Turkish ship, provides compensation for the wounded and the families of those killed and agrees to an independent international inquiry.

So far, Israel has resisted the idea of an independent investigation, but the Israeli government has tried its best to tone down the crisis and patch up relations. This week, for example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a cabinet member who has cultivated close ties with the Turks, to a secret meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.

“It is not in the interest of Israel, or even Turkey, that this relationship continue to deteriorate,” Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 1, the state television station, on Friday. “Israel cannot apologize because its soldiers had to defend themselves to avoid being lynched by a crowd.” He added, “We regret the loss of life.”

Israel has a free trade agreement with Turkey that no one has spoken of rupturing, and shortly before the flotilla raid Turkey helped ensure Israel’s inclusion in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But problems are starting to crop up. Turkish officials are concerned that the Israelis will cancel a $141 million contract to enhance the intelligence gathering abilities of Turkey’s warplanes for fear that the new systems might be used against Israel, Ms. Sariibrahimoglu said.

“I am sure we are much more sensitive about sharing sensitive material with them out of fear it will get to the Iranians,” said Efraim Inbar, an expert in Turkish-Israeli relations and director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

Israel’s ties with Turkey had begun to fray well before the flotilla raid, starting with the election in 2003 of an Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who began to tilt Turkey toward new relations with two of Israel’s most serious foes, Iran and Syria. Relations with Israel took an especially icy turn in early 2008, when Mr. Erdogan lashed out at Israel over its killing of civilians in its offensive on Gaza.

Israel’s growing wariness of Turkey goes back several years, as evidenced by its decision not to sell the Turks its Ofek spy satellite, Israeli officials said, again speaking on condition of anonymity. On the civilian side the main fallout from the damaged diplomatic ties is easily visible on Turkey’s beaches, once a favorite vacation destination of Israelis who this year canceled en masse.

Menashe Carmon, the chairman of the Israel Turkey Business Council, said that although long-time cooperation between Israeli and Turkish businesses had not stopped, partnerships and investment ventures that were in their initial stages had slowed. “They have decided to wait and see what will happen politically,” he said, referring mostly to Israeli companies.

His office in a building overlooking the harbor in Jaffa features the Turkish and Israeli flags — a rare sight in Israel. He says he remains hopeful that better times lie ahead. He is busy at work planning a trip for Turkish businesspeople in Israel.

*http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html?_r=1&hpw*