Daily commentary on the ADL/Armenian Genocide uproar

LUFTMENSCHEN VS. REALISTS: David Kelsey of Jewschool has published “The Luftmenschen of Jewcy,” a post in which he criticizes Jewcy for valuing “moral consistency” over the tough-minded realpolitik that Israel’s current situation demands. The cost of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, Kelsey points out, is alienating Turkey, “a crucial Israel ally.” But what is the benefit, he asks. He answers his own question: “The benefit is that Joey Kurtzman and the whole Jewcy mishpacha get to look like badass idealists willing to challenge the Jewish 'defense' organization status quo, and show they are very big universalists not confined to shtetl-like thinking.”

“Jewcy and friends,” he says, “should have done a cost-benefit analysis before going apeshit. If they did, then they clearly harbor a most unsympathetic view to the Jewish state and her needs. If they didn’t, then they are classic, irresponsible, Diaspora Luftmenschen.”

Kelsey’s not alone in thinking this way. The Forward has published an astonishing editorial titled “Of Genocide and Morality,” arguing that with the furor over the Armenian Genocide and Israel’s recent expulsion of Darfuri refugees, we witness the end of the “post-Holocaust era in Jewish history.” American Jews must outgrow their post-Holocaust fetish with simplistic moralizing and “re-examine the moral principles we have created for ourselves in the wake of the Holocaust, and consider whether they reflect the realities of today’s cold, hard world.” “Remembering genocide is important, but not as important as saving lives today.”

I’m afraid this won’t fly, folks. The Jewish community has worked very hard to instill in its young the sense that bearing witness to genocide is virtually a sacred responsibility, that denial of genocide is the final step of genocide, that the “criminal indifference” of the world to the genocide of European Jewry was a cataclysmic moral failure that must never be repeated, and that only by remembering the past can we prevent its repetition. So no, you don’t get to switch horses now that recalling someone else’s genocide conflicts with a strategic goal.

If this is the direction you want to take the Jewish community, then go ahead and raise the next generation to believe that genocide is a trifle that can be ignored when politically convenient to do so. But so far as Jewcy is concerned, affirming the Armenian Genocide is both the moral choice and the tough-minded choice. Whatever temporary advantages America, Israel, Turkey, or the Jewish community may accrue from a refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, the most salient consequence is a world in which there is less concern for genocide, less certainty that genocidaires will be held to account—a world in which genocides and similar human tragedies are simply more likely to happen.

As the Jerusalem Post argued yesterday, “Never Again has been exposed as an empty mantra, most recently in Rwanda and Darfur,” and this has happened because we have not “sufficiently internalized” the lessons of tragedies such as the Armenian Genocide. Preventing human tragedies of the future “requires acknowledging and internalizing the crimes of the past.”

<Tangent> What sort of ideological shakeup is taking place in the Jewish community that Jewcy sides with the Jerusalem Post for the universalist luftmenschen against the tough-minded ethnocentrists of Forward and Jewschool? </Tangent>

TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL MAKES EXTREMELY CREEPY COMMENTS: As expected, Turkey’s ally Israel has been unhappy with the ADL’s semi-reversal on the Armenian Genocide.

As Namig Tan, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel explains, the Turkish people make no distinction between Israel and world Jews, and thus Turkey’s “approach towards Israel is going to change, and it is not going to be positive. I think in this situation Israeli Foreign Ministry should address this diplomatic crisis and demonstrate its power and influence to Jewish lobby in the US in order such events between the two friendly peoples and states not repeat in the future.”

Youch. What to do with an ally who thinks that world Jewry operates like a single well-oiled machine enforcing its political will wherever it wishes? An ally whose support of Israel is conditional upon the Jewish state’s exercise of powers it could never conceivably have? I guess the tough-minded answer is supposed to be, “Placate, placate, placate! Just try to fulfill their Protocols-worthy fantasies about how we work and what we can accomplish. Just do what they want, and then they’ll be nice to us again!” Funny, I thought we’d already learned that that doesn’t work.

JEWCY'S SEPTEMBER 6 FOXMAN PROTEST: Jewcy’s gotten a fantastic response from the Armenian-American community, and I predict this is going to be big. Check out our official press release, and get a ride or help arrange transportation on our message board.

MASSACHUSETTS TOWNS STILL ON THE MOVE: Meanwhile, events are still rolling forward in Massachusetts. The Daily News of Newburyport reports that “The city Commission for Diversity and Tolerance can only tolerate so much,” and so they’re considering withdrawing from the ADL’s No Place for Hate program unless the organization “unambiguously acknowledges the Armenian genocide and lobbies Congress to do the same.” My question: Which will be the first town outside of Massachusetts to raise the issue?

* Check our always up-to-date list of Jewcy's posts on the ADL/Armenian Genocide issue