Believe it or not, that's Armenian for "Thanks!" And although I'm not exactly a fluent speaker of my ancestral tongue, I couldn't think of a better way to express my support for Joey and the rest of the intrepid gang at Jewcy.

By challenging and discrediting the the number one hypocrite in your community, you've helped cleanse the air. The ogre doesn't even have to resign, though we still hope that he will; the fact that you have his number (and have made sure he knows it) is victory enough for now.

You're a brave bunch, and I want to let you know how much I appreciate your efforts to joust at evil wherever you find it.

Rick Bayan

The New Moderate

Foxman has bent, but the old weasel just won't break. He has inched closer to using the G-word in its proper context, but he still had to use qualifiers like "tantamount to" and Clintonisms like "we might have called it genocide if the word genocide had existed at the time" (or whatever his exact words were).

I can see him, like Dr. Strangelove battling with his own right arm, desperately attempting to suppress the forbidden words that demand to burst from his lips: ARMENIAN... (aaaggghhh!)... G E N O C I D E. Whether he'll ever renounce his "neutrality" and stop actively opposing the Congressional resolution to recognize the genocide is another matter. If he falls from power, of course, it won't matter either way.

On to a slightly different issue. For years, Foxman has used the word "anti-Semite" with reckless abandon -- not so much to castigate actual Jew-haters as to intimidate, bully, damage and discredit any gentile who dares to diverge from the party line. Jimmy Carter was his latest victim. What Foxman doesn't seem to get is that nobody loves a bully. We might remain silent for fear of incurring his wrath, but we resent the hell out of him. I wonder how many anti-Semites the man has inadvertently created with his terror tactics. Even I was beginning to resent the Jewish community for labeling all criticism as anti-Semitism -- until I discovered that Foxman was behind most of the name-calling.

The best weapon against anti-Semitism is a free-spirited forum like this one, which reveals that "the Jews" aren't a monolithic and self-righteous power elite (which is the image Foxman & Co. project to the world), but a collection of very individual individuals, most of whom are open-minded, intelligent (no surprise there), and above all, highly decent. As an Armenian-American, I'm touched and more than a bit relieved to renew my affection for the Jews as brothers and sisters who have more in common with us Armenians than perhaps any other group in the world. 

Thank you for expressing your outrage so eloquently, for your solidarity with the Armenian cause, and above all, for having such good and generous hearts.

Rick Bayan

The New Moderate

So Foxman has come around on the Armenian genocide issue, which directly impacts Turkish-Jewish relations. (I'd call his statement courageous if he hadn't already been pressured by public condemnation.) Yet he continues to oppose the U.S. genocide bill, which, on the face of it, should have little or no impact on Turkish-Jewish relations. What to conclude? Turkey had to be blackmailing Foxman, twisting his arm to lobby against the bill and using the welfare of Turkish Jews as leverage. Some allies!

Rick Bayan

I couldn't resist. I guess talking about summer homes on the Aegean coast of Armenia is out of the question, too.

Rick