In the glutted landscape of Jewish communal life, no institution blusters with greater pomposity than the Organization That Claims To Speak On Behalf Of The Jews (OTCSBJ). What’s most frustrating about the OTCSBJ is that it often speaks not on behalf of “the Jewish People” but of the tiny percentage of Jews who sign up for its email lists. Most notorious in this category is the Conference of Presidents (“American Jewry’s recognized address for consensus policy”), which clamored vociferously for an invasion of Iraq (see its "Daily Alerts" of cherry-picked panic from 2002 and 2003) despite the fact that a majority of American Jews opposed the invasion.

A relatively new OTCSBJ has entered the scene: The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute. Chaired by Dennis Ross, the JPPPI seeks to formulate an overarching “Jewish policy” with an eye towards strengthening the status of Israel as the “center of Jewish life.” As a sign of how it views the vitality of Diaspora Jewish life, the JPPPI has on its team the famed Israeli demographer Sergio DellaPergola, who clings to the widely-discredited National Jewish Population Survey of 2001, with its bleak outlook for Jewish life in America. After all, it's easier to promote Israel as the "center of Jewish life" if Jewish life everywhere else is falling apart.
Yehezkel Dror: Modern Day Jewish Prophet suspiciously resembles Larry "Bud" Mellman
Now the Founding President of the JPPPI, Yehezkel Dror, has written a stunning op-ed in The Forward about where he feels “the Jewish People” should head. Essentially, he argues, the "requirements of existence" must trump everything else. In light of Israel's (or "the Jewish People's") interests, Dror characterizes moral considerations as "political correctness and other thinking-repressing fashions." He singles out Jewish activism on China and on Turkey's genocide of Armenians, arguing that Jews must be supportive of China and Turkey, "or at least remain neutral," in light of Israel's strategic interests. Bewilderingly, he then takes the "end to morality" argument to the nuclear level:

Similarly, Jewish leaders should support harsh measures against terrorists who potentially endanger Jews, even at the cost of human rights and humanitarian law. And if the threat is sufficiently grave, the use of weapons of mass destruction by Israel would be justified if likely to be necessary for assuring the state’s survival, the bitter price of large number of killed innocent civilians notwithstanding.

Thankfully, Dror concedes that it's hard to define what constitutes "survival" ("there is much room for debate," he assures us. Gosh, thanks, Yehezkel!). But, he insists:

When important for existence, violating the rights of others should be accepted, with regret but with determination. Support or condemnation of various countries and their policies should be decided upon primarily in light of probable consequences for the existence of the Jewish people.

In short, the imperatives of existence should be given priority over other concerns — however important they may be — including liberal and humanitarian values, support for human rights and democratization.

If nothing else, Dror's outlook -- shared, presumably, by the JPPPI -- represents a remarkable devolution. Yesterday's popular Jewish cant about Israel ran along the lines of "Israel, and everything it does, is by definition moral." How far have we progressed if we no longer even pretend it's moral, instead insisting that morality itself must be relinquished as a vestige of an earlier age? What's more, we must weigh Israel's interests not only in discussions of the Middle East, but in ethical issues that come up anywhere in the world. Whatever the situation, says Dror, we risk imperiling the Jewish People's existence by aligning ourselves purely with morality.

One wonders how the term "survival" will be defined. With the proper argument, it can include not only nuking Iran, but rounding up all non-Jewish inhabitants of the West Bank (and hell, pre-Green Line Israel too) and shipping them off to the other side of the Jordan River. Slobodan Milosevic was interested in his people's survival too. Was he the intellectual and moral forefather of the JPPPI?

It seems almost providential that just last week, Albert Einstein rose from the grave to give us a warning about Jews and power. “As far as my experience goes," he wrote about Jews, "they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power.” Dror offers evidence that sixty years into what some people call "the Jewish return to sovereignty," it might be time for some chemotherapy.

Just Say "Sleaze": The JPPPI's Foxman and Kissinger -- Judaism's Moral Compass Just as importantly, with this op-ed, the JPPPI has shown that it has scant knowledge of "the Jewish People," most of whom do not base decisions, moral or otherwise, on the exclusive basis of what David Ben Gurion would wish for. But that won't stop the JPPPI from insisting it speaks on our behalf. In his description of the mission of the organization, Dror has written that "most Israeli policy-makers and also intellectuals and opinion-shapers, suffer from a lack of understanding, as well as ignorance about and misperception of, Diaspora realities, especially concerning the mindset and feelings of the majority of the younger generation." Let's see, how can we bridge this gap in understanding, especially with the "younger generation"? Hey, how about we propose an abandonment of morality whenever Israel is in the picture? That should work beautifully!

At least the JPPPI is consistent with other Organizations That Claim To Speak On Behalf Of The Jews. It's currently enjoying Stage Two of Jewish organizational process:

Stage One: Establish an organization that claims to represent "the Jewish People."

Stage Two: Espouse ideology that the vast majority of Jews would consider to be out-of-touch or morally execrable.

Stage Three: Lament, in limitless policy papers, the fact that so few Jews choose to "affiliate" with the organized community.

Stage Four: Go to Stage One.

In his recent Jewcy piece "The Betrayal of Turkish Jews," Khatchig Mouradian paints a dark portrait of Jewish life in Turkey, one in which Turkish Jews hope to escape antisemitic violence by proving their extreme loyalty to Turkey. Ami Eden, the managing editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, asked me the following questions about how Khatchig's piece bears on the ongoing ADL/Armenian Genocide controversy:

Not to sound snarky, but...

Doesn't this go along way toward validating the view of those who say they are worried about the safety of Turkey's Jews?

Do you think the ADL is concerned about Turkish Jews, but being shortsighted, or that the organization is just using the issue as an excuse to protect Turkey?

Put aside the ADL and its motivations... Do you accept the proposition that, at least in the short term, having Jewish groups successfully secure passage of the resolution is more dangerous for the Jews of Turkey than if Jewish groups are seen as opposing the resolution? That certainly seems to be the logic of this article.

I'll assume this exchange is on-the-record unless you say otherwise.

Here's my response.

Ami,

Obviously, our article "The Betrayal of Turkish Jews" departs pretty radically from the "Oh, Turkish Jews are just fine!" rebuttal that we sometimes hear in response to the supposed concerns of Foxman et al. Khatchig shows Turkish Jews to us as a harried minority whose "loyalty" has been extorted from them in exchange for physical safety.

But no, the article doesn't at all validate the concerns of those who claim we must appease Turkish antisemites in order to protect Turkish Jews. Khatchig and the scholars he interviewed see crude antisemitism as a staple of Turkish life and politics, but they deny that eruptions of antisemitic violence are a plausible outcome of the passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution. This is because Turkey's international ambitions (particularly re: the European Union) would be badly compromised by outbreaks of antisemitic violence.

Are these people wrong? Has Khatchig perhaps understated the antisemitism in Turkish life? Is Turkish society so profoundly antisemitic, so beholden to Protocols-style absurdities about Jewish unity and world influence, that Turks would set upon Turkish Jews with implacable rage if the U.S. House of Reps passed a resolution over which even American Jews have limited influence? And is the Turkish government so feckless and unpragmatic that it would allow its most cherished political ambitions to be scuppered as Turks took violent "revenge" on the country's Jews?

This all strikes me as rather far-fetched, as it does Professor Porter. So no, although the leadership of our community has thrown its weight behind the world's most successful campaign of genocide denial, I doubt they've managed even to serve the short-term interests of Turkish Jewry. And you can bet they've considerably complicated the future of that community by demonstrating to Turkey that popular antisemitic hatred is a valuable political asset.

Your second question: "Do you think the ADL is concerned about Turkish Jews, but being shortsighted, or that the organization is just using the issue as an excuse to protect Turkey?"

I certainly accept that some in the Jewish community—perhaps including some of the commissioners of the ADL—are genuinely concerned about the fate of Turkish Jews. I have more difficulty believing they truly think that by gutlessly jumping at the demands of antisemites we can earn a happier outcome for Jews. I'd thought the 20th century had taught us that this was a losing strategy, and I'm mystified as to how any American Jew could conclude that we were too hasty in giving up on this approach, and ought now to give it another whirl.

Still, I suppose that if the leaders of the ADL—which once stood as a symbol of modern Jewish assertiveness and refusal to accept the traditional indignities of Jewish life in Europe—can today be co-opted as compliant Court Jews for Ankara, then it's no more startling to learn that they and others in the Jewish community are prepared to sit cringing at the feet of Middle Eastern leaders who clearly think they know a thing or two about how to keep irksome Jews in line. Turkish antisemites must have been gratified that American Jewish leaders—representatives of the most empowered, integrated Jewish population in the history of the diaspora—could be so easily managed like a gaggle of korkak Yahudiler, responding to threats of antisemitic violence with desperate smiles and obsequious supplications. As the Turkish ambassador to Israel helpfully explained, so far as the Turks are concerned, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew. How do you say QED in Turkish?

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For the past several months, the Jews of Turkey have been in the international spotlight. As Congress has debated the Armenian Genocide resolution, high-ranking Turkish officials have warned that Turkish Jews will be endangered if the resolution passes. And Jewish-American organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have repeatedly cited the predicament of Turkish Jews as reason to support Turkey's campaign of genocide denial.

In an effort to better understand the plight of Turkish Jewry, I interviewed several prominent scholars who have studied the community.

Ottoman Jews: Safety Through Loyalty

For 500 years, Jews have lived as a loyal minority in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and the present-day Turkish republic. According to Turkish-Jewish scholar Rifat Bali, who has published several books on the history of Turkey's Jews, their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire allowed Turkish Jews to escape the tragic fate of the Empire's Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians.

"Turkish Jews were not involved in any sort of ethnic nationalism," says Bali. "The Zionist movement did not take root in Istanbul because the community leadership had witnessed the tragic fate of the Ottoman Armenians. [They] understood that the Ottoman leadership would perceive Zionism as a separatist nationalist movement and that this would have dire consequences. They therefore took an ‘anti-Zionist' position."

Like today's Turkish Jewish community, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire were utilized as international advocates for Turkish political goals. "Haim Nahum, the last Ottoman Chief Rabbi, was an ‘anti-Zionist' and a supporter of the Turkish Nationalist movement," says Bali. "He was sent by Mustafa Kemal to the USA and Europe for lobbying on behalf of the Kemalists."

Turkish Jews in the 20^th century: Loyal Scapegoats

Turkish political groups that fight bitterly on other issues find common ground in blaming Turkish Jews for the country's ills. "Turkey's Jews have been scapegoated by the Islamist movement which started to grow in 1946," say Bali. "In 1969, the National Order Party began propagating its Islamist National View ideology, which accused Jews and Zionism of being behind all the troubles of Turkey." And in the ‘70s, Turkey's Jews were hostage to the clash between Turkey's ultra-leftists and ultra-rightists.

Turkish Jews Today

Adopting Muslim Names to Escape Attention

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Some long-overdue good news - perhaps - from Turkey yesterday, where the European Union's carrot-and-stick approach, so often criticised in the past, may be about to see the repeal, or at least reform, of the Turkish penal code's infamous Article 301, which bans ‘insults' against Turkish identity or national institutions on pain of jail. The article has been used to prosecute Orhan Pamuk and Hrant Dink, among others; though both were acquitted, of course, Dink tragically did not escape the ultra-nationalist's ‘justice' for long.

In the light of the furore over the Foxman affair, it's worth recalling that the situation in Turkey is one without parallel in the Western world (and since that is the category into which nation aspires to be bracketed, let's run with that for the time being). It's only a few months since the European Union unveiled plans (eventually diluted) to make Holocaust denial a crime EU-wide, and several member states maintain and enforce Holocaust denial statutes rigorously, as David Irving found to his cost. Yet in Turkey it is not genocide denial which is the criminal offence but genocide affirmation.

Opinion is divided on what happened to the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire 90 years ago. Everyone else in the world says they were systematically massacred; Turkey says they weren't. If the historical debate was closed long ago, the Turkish state seems to have misinterpreted the resulting consensus. The rethink on Article 301, then, is not the fruit of introspection but has been forced on them by the EU, whose enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, presented a report on Tuesday that was highly critical of continuing restrictions on free speech in the most high-profile of its aspirant members:

"The infamous article 301 must be repealed or amended without delay," Mr Rehn suggested [...] "This is not acceptable in a European democracy that writers, journalists, academics and other intellectuals are prosecuted for simply expressing a critical but completely non-violent opinion."

That was the stick. The carrot was a promise to open negotiations on the judicial and human rights chapters of accession talks as soon as the penal code was cleaned up to Brussels' satisfaction. This may be the first step in that process.

Europeans are wont to compare their masterful use of ‘soft power' with the heavy-handed, bull-in-the-china-shop belligerence of American policy, though we've heard less crowing from that quarter since the good-cop bad-cop routine with Iran went tits-up. Ankara can hardly be compared with Tehran, of course, but the principle remains the same; draw them in rather than freeze them out, more leverage with friends than enemies, etc. etc. It's reasoning such as this that leads Tony Blair to visit Gaddafi's tent, or the EU to invite the likes of Mugabe to their summits; a touching but naïve belief that since we put aside our differences by setting up a giant talking shop, it'll work with others too.

The problem with is that Turkish public opinion has long since grown tired of this elaborate diplomatic dance; there's little appetite for further concessions. The saber-rattling in Kurdistan shows that Ankara is not afraid to give the West the finger when it sees fit. Nor is there much real enthusiasm on the Continent for Turkish accession, except in London: and even here you can be sure that if there were any realistic prospect of Turkish entry into the EU the tabloid press would swing into full scaremongering mode - just think of all the swarthy immigrants! - and the government would start backtracking at some speed. Moreover, several other EU members have stated their outright hostility to Turkey joining the Union, and that's not likely to change any time soon.

So whilst the repeal of Article 301 is clearly good news, one swallow does not make a summer; it doesn't presage any real shift in Turkey's official stance towards the Armenian genocide, which remains utterly hardline, and it doesn't mean that the path to acceptance in the European family of nations is going to get any smoother.

These are days of woe for the New Republic, so let me be the first -- or last -- to congratulate the magazine for publishing the best moral argument for the Congressional passage of the Armenian Genocide resolution that I've yet read. Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam Today, nails it:

America remains the only country in the world with a universal constituency. Domestic politics in the United States often have a profound effect in every corner of the earth, from determining immigration flows and investment patterns to handing leaders and their heirs the excuses they crave to blur the lines between God and government.

[...]

The question for Americans ought to be: Since when is it wrong to speak out against genocide, however many years have elapsed? People of good conscience continued raising their voices against slavery in the United States well after abolition. Are they reckless or sinister for offending many Americans? In any event, is causing offense a reason to stop remembering?

Here is the question for Turks: Why should your history be immune to America's judgment when, according to surveys of global attitudes about the United States, you as a nation are among the most anti-American (read: judgmental) in all of the Muslim world?

Of course, these are precisely the considerations being sidelined by both the left and the right in favor of more urgent matters of foreign policy: the war in Iraq, winning hearts and minds in the Muslim world, etc. But ask yourself: If the U.S. failed to rebuke an ally for its shameful record of denial and distortion about a 20th century atrocity, don't you think the same critics of the Armenian Genocide resolution would eventually use that failure as a cudgel against cynical American self-interest when it became convenient to do so? Of course they would.

The more one thinks about Fallows' Law (perhaps I should downgrade it to an Axiom, since he's only written one blog post about it), the more one sees how hollow it is. The U.S. makes decisions of international scope all the time that alienate other countries with which it otherwise maintains amicable relations. What can Turkey do out of umbrage for having had a parliamentary finger wagged in its face? Start sponsoring terrorism? That'd put a damper in its campaign against the PKK, wouldn it? Invade Iraq? That'd pit it militarily against a NATO ally and further diminish its chances for inclusion in the European Big Boys' Club.

In short, even the dread Nancy Pelosi comes out looking good on H.Res.106., if she sticks to her guns against Bush and company.

I said yesterday, w/r/t Iran, that one could tell a lot about a country by how it wages wars. Well, one can also tell a lot about a country by how it reacts to tough love. Guess who Turkey blames for the resolution? Come on, now... Try harder.

In an interview with the liberal Islamic Zaman newspaper on the eve of the resolution's approval October 10 by the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said he had told American Jewish leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception in Turkey that "Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks." Babacan added, "We have told them that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this."

The Turkish public seems to have absorbed that message.

An on-line survey by Zaman's English-language edition asking why Turks believed the bill succeeded showed that 22 percent of respondents chose "Jews' having legitimized the genocide claims" - second only to "Turkey's negligence."

Wait, what happened to the secular, philo-Semitic republic that's bosom buddies with Israel? I thought that state invitation Ankara extended to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was a one-off. And I was all ready to see past Turkey's righteous defense of Syria when the Israeli Air Force took out the incipient nuclear weapons facility Bashar al-Assad mail-ordered from North Korea...

If you'd like to know why American Jewish-Armenian solidarity is running high at the moment, you may turn to this latest news item showcasing how our Armenian comrades deal with fanatical despots who try to woo them by offering heavily leveraged support. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was given an honorary doctorate this week by Yerevan State University, one of the more prominent schools in Armenia. (Since the Southern Caucasian country suffers under a dual blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan, it receives Iranian largess. There are quite a few ethnic Armenians living in Persia, too.)

The Armenian Weekly, the official newspaper of the Armenian National Committee, was swift to denounce the university in no uncertain terms, demonstrating once against that a U.S. ethnic lobby doesn't always see eye-to-eye with the country on whose behalf it agitates:

But why did Yerevan State University bestow an honorary doctorate and a gold medal upon a politician, who has shown disregard to basic historical research and memory by denying the Holocaust of the Jews during WWII?

It is worth noting that one of the manifestations of Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial is calling for further “impartial” studies on WWII. We have heard that very same argument regarding the Armenian genocide from Turkey and its allies.

Hat tip: JTA Daily Briefing.

Turkey is steadily becoming one of the most dangerous, complicated, and bizarre players on the world’s Islamic stage. The Washington Post has a story about a mega-best-selling Turkish book series asserting that Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other politicians in the strongly Islamic Justice and Development Party (or AKP) are actually Zionist agents. And the books are more than a popular phenomenon. They're part of a curious political movement.

By bombing Syria:

"They dropped bombs over Syria and they dropped fuel tanks on Syrian soil," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in Ankara Monday, while briefing Turkish officials on the incident. Turkey, which has strong military and diplomatic ties to Israel, described the overflights as "unacceptable," and has demanded an explanation from the Israeli government.

Now will Foxman recognize the Armenian Genocide?

I have been reading about Jewcy's protests against Foxman and the ADL's unwillingness to step on Turkish toes by condemning the Armenian Genocide.

While the idealist in me wants every genocide condemned, I really don't see Jewcy succeeding here. Operating under the assumption that the ADL would not do anything to undermine Israeli interests (and please correct me if my assumption is incorrect), then this passage from Chomsky in 2002 is probably why the ADL would not say anything remotely anti-Turkish:

The Israeli military authorities claim to have air and armored forces that are larger and more advanced than those of any European NATO power (Yitzhak ben Israel, Ha'aretz, 4-16-02, Hebrew). They also announce that 12 percent of their bombers and fighter aircraft are permanently stationed in Eastern Turkey, along with comparable naval and submarine forces in Turkish bases, and armored forces as well, in case it becomes necessary to resort to extreme violence once again to subdue Turkey's Kurdish population, as in the Clinton years. Israeli aircraft based in Turkey are reported to be flying reconnaissance flights along Iran's borders, part of a general U.S.-Israel-Turkey policy of threatening Iran with attack and perhaps forceful partitioning.

By the way, I am really curious about if, and how, Turkey's relationship with Israel has changed after the election of the AKP Party. What was Israeli sentiment towards the Islamists?

Sometimes a Google news search works like an Ask Sherlock engine. I don't mean to tread on Joey's well-pounded terrain, but I think I know why the ADL offered its mealymouthed half-recognition of the 20th century's first genocide. Abe Foxman has a book to sell.

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have broadened their notorious thesis, that U.S. foreign policy is perilously controlled by a Zionist Lobby (their caps) consisting of high-powered American Jews, into a volume that's already led to the usual cycle of nonsense: canceled lecture gigs, rescinded invitations, and an overflowing Dershowitz inbox. And as disastrous as it may be to hear this, the one person responsible for rebutting Lobby hobbyhorse is none other than the charming Mr. Foxman himself. This sailed in under the radar in the Times a few days ago:

Also being released on Sept. 4 is “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control” (Palgrave Macmillan) by Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. The notion that pro-Israel groups “have anything like a uniform agenda, and that U.S. policy on Israel and the Middle East is the result of their influence, is simply wrong,” George P. Shultz, a former secretary of state, says in the foreword. “This is a conspiracy theory pure and simple, and scholars at great universities should be ashamed to promulgate it.”

You don't know whether to laugh or cry, really. But how clear it now seems. The ADL is looking to rob Mearsheimer and Walt of their easy trump: How dare we be accused of propagating the deadliest lie being by the man who believes mass graves are only as real as their Hebraic inhabitants. Foxman will presumably argue that M/W are wrong because, well, his pro-Israel organization just alienated Israel's biggest Muslim ally, so there.

That smile on Tony Judt's face right about now? Ear to ear, baby.

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Seoul: Anti-war protesters held a candlelight vigil to demand the safe return of kidnapped South Koreans and the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Afghanistan.

• Democrats lead by $100 million. [The Wall Street Journal]
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates breaks with Bush over Iraq. [The Huffington Post]
• Gawker's Explications on Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones. [Gawker]
• Ja Rule and Lil' Wayne arrested on gun charges. [New York Daily News]
• Bloomberg bid would help Clinton win Florida. [Political Wire]
• In Memphis, ladies-in-bikinis landscaping company. [MSNBC]
• Juan Cole rounds up Turkish elections, US raid on Iraqi mosque, and Sistani unsafe. [Informed Comment]
• Vigil in Seoul for hostage South Koreans in Afghanistan. [The New York Times]

I was interested to read Joey Kurtzman’s critique of Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League, and their position on the resolution of the Armenian question in Turkish history.

Before turning to the Armenian-Turkish controversy, let me say that I agree with Kurtzman that Foxman has focused unproductively on an alleged threat to American Jews from believing Christians. It is true that some Christian activists slip into the long-established and repellent tropes of historic Jew-baiting (I dislike the unscientific and anachronistic term “anti-Semitism”), especially when dealing with “the new world order.” But nobody serious can argue that American Christians have been swept by “conversion fever” toward Jews. I have much greater concerns about increased Jew-baiting in the guise of criticism of the neoconservatives, a matter Foxman and ADL have ignored.

One poster, however, asserted that “Foxman has consistently ignored or worse, appeased actual, real and arguably much more dangerous examples of Muslim anti-Semitism here in the U.S.” As a moderate Muslim, I consider this statement partially incorrect. Abe Foxman cannot be accused of appeasing Muslim Jew-baiting. Indeed, I was alarmed not long ago when Foxman was alleged to have declared that ADL cannot undertake dialogue with moderate Muslims because there are no moderate Muslims.

Jew-baiting has long been a problem in the American Muslim community. It is time Muslims admitted the negative character of this phenomenon, mainly caused by the domination in American Islam of ethnic groups among which hatred of Jews has been cultivated by extremist ideologues. African-Americans, Arab-Americans, and Pakistani-Americans make up the overwhelming majority in American Islam. Many African-Americans bring hostility to Jews with them into Islam. Arabs have obviously been saturated with paranoia about Jews, and Pakistanis have come under the spell of Judeophobia thanks to the financial and other penetration of their native country, and its military and intelligence institutions, by Islamist radicals.

Nevertheless, there are more moderate Muslims willing to participate in serious dialogue with Jews and Israelis than is popularly believed. Another poster, replying to Kurtzman, defended Turkey as one of only three Muslim countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel – presumably referring to Jordan and Egypt as the other two. This is also inaccurate. Albania, Azerbaijan (a Shia Muslim country), Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, Mauritania, Senegal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan all have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, and Qatar has never completely cut off its trade relations with Israel. Other Muslim countries, such as Morocco and Oman, have also maintained such back-channel links.

Some of these regimes, e.g. Uzbekistan, have bad human-rights records. But notwithstanding the unhelpful jibes of Sacha Baron Cohen, Kazakhstan, which has made measurable progress toward democratization, is also profoundly committed to Jewish-Muslim dialogue, and has hosted American Jewish religious and community leaders. Most important, Joey Kurtzman’s analysis of Foxman and ADL’s bad posture on Turkey and the Armenians is correct. The term “successful genocide” may be legitimately limited to the Jewish experience, since the Nazi liquidation of European Judaism was uniquely extensive. But it is clear that Turkey has failed to adequately account for its actions against the Armenians during the First World War. This is not a matter of an exclusively Armenian grievance.

Turkish secular Sunni Muslims, members of the Turkish and Kurdish Alevi Muslim minority (as many as 18 million people or 25 percent of the republic’s population, who hew to a fusion of Shia, Sufi, and pre-Islamic Turkish beliefs), other Orthodox Christians in Turkey, and the rest of the Kurds all have a stake in Turkish truth about the Armenians. That is because the Armenians stand for the fate of all religious and ethnic minorities that were submitted to compulsory Turkification by the republic’s government. Even the 500-year old Sephardic Jewish community was forced to adopt Turkish, rather than Judeo-Spanish, as its main medium of culture. The attempt to force all residents of the republic into a single Turkish identity has a complicated history. Suffice it to note here that while they have mainly been identified with Turkish secularism, the same chauvinist attitudes are supported by the Sunni-centric AKP party now in power in Ankara.

And that is the real problem. Turkey has used its relations with Israel and the situation of its Jewish community to blackmail American Jews into silence about the Armenians, to say nothing of the Alevis or Kurds. But Abdullah Gul, who had the arrogance to lobby American Jewish leaders to assist in continued suppression of the truth about the Armenian question, is an AKP Islamist whose party discriminates against all the aforementioned minorities. In addition, the AKP has allowed a dangerous anti-American rhetoric to grow in Turkey, complete with threats to invade Iraqi Kurdistan on the pretext of Kurdish nationalist radicalism. And if that were not enough, a Turkish popular literature proliferates, that is filled with anti-Jewish paranoia. Disreputable accusations had long been taught as history in Saudi Arabian schools: that the Turkish Sephardim, or descendants of those that became Muslim from among the followers of the false messiah Sabbetai Zevi, brought about the fall of the Ottoman caliphate. But such claims are now widely offered in Turkish bookshops.

It has often been said that the treatment of the Jews by a government is a standard by which to judge the civility, stability, and level of human dignity present in a country. By that gauge, Bosnia-Hercegovina is far ahead of some Christian as well as Muslim lands. But in Turkey, the Armenians play this role. The standing of the Armenian victims in Turkish history is the criterion for determining whether Turkey will become truly democratic as well as secular, will grant autonomy to its minorities, and will refrain from pursuing its Kurdophobic tendencies into a disastrous confrontation with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. American Jews cannot allow their international stature to be compromised by the demands of unreliable allies like Abdullah Gul and the AKP. That alone is an urgent reason to repudiate the unfortunate involvement of Foxman and ADL in Turkish-Armenian affairs.

With 140,000 troops. That's how many Turkey has amassed at the border of Iraqi Kurdistan in its preparation for a full-scale "incursion" into that sovereign territory. The stated objective is to root out members of the Stalinoid PKK terrorist organization. We have 160,000 troops in the whole of Iraq. Subtract them, and I wonder what will stay Ankara's hand...

Now how much more ominous would this have been had there not been an American garrison stationed nearby to prevent a full-scale invasion?  

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

"It is not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands," one of the officials told the AP by telephone. The official is based in southeast Turkey, where the military has been battling separatist Kurdish rebels since they took up arms in 1984.

The U.S. military said it could not confirm the reports but was "very concerned."

 

Bi-partisanism is a bitch. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi and crew can learn something from these Young Turks next time Iraq war funding comes up for debate.

In The Weekly Standard dated May 14, I published an article titled “The Balkan Front” in which I described my recent visit to Europe and discussions with Turkish, Kurdish, Albanian, and Bosnian Muslims about the resurgence of radical Islam in the eastern Mediterranean countries.

The story, its background, and its relevance became, in my view, imperative to Americans, with news of the arrest of six members of an alleged radical-Islamist conspiracy to attack U.S. service personnel at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The two ringleaders in the plot were Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, aged 22, from Jordan, and Serdar Tatar, 23, who was born in Turkey.

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Erdogan's Justice and Development Party is what you might call "Islamist Lite." Still, they play to the cheap seats for votes, and rumor has it the Kemalist doctrine of hyper-secularism is on the wane in Ankara. The only encouraging sign is the putsch against presidential candidate Abdullah Gul, who's been hit with popular indignation after his wife paraded around town and in front of cameras in a headscraf. The BBC:

The opposition accuses Mr Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and says that if he becomes president it will threaten Turkey's secular tradition.

Also, Cihan Tugal has a fairly long piece in New Left Review entitled "Nato's Islamists" which provides a cross-section of the ruling party:

The appeal of the AKP to liberals and intellectuals in 2002 rested primarily on its pro-democratic, pro-European stance. Yet on democratization, the party has never demonstrated more than a pro forma commitment. Erdoğan is well-known for his authoritarian tendencies, and as the can-do mayor of Istanbul between 1994 and 1998 he ruled with an iron fist. [27] At its founding congress, the akp leadership had pledged itself to a regime of internal party democracy, but initial moves in this direction were soon overturned. In 2003, the akp’s Board of Founders annulled internal elections to the Central Committee and invested the party president, Erdoğan, with sole authority to appoint or dismiss members of the Central Committee. These authoritarian moves had their counterparts in the relation of the party to the people. While Erdoğan’s government legislated a series of democratic reforms at the instigation of the eu, it has also disregarded the most basic norms of representivity and accountability with regard to its electorate—most blatantly, of course, over Iraq. Rather than taking popular grievances seriously, Erdoğan will publicly scold anybody who talks to him about hunger, unemployment or housing problems. At party rallies he has told the poor to pull themselves together and do something for themselves, instead of expecting the government to do it for them.

Hrant DinkAs Michael mentioned, I'm not fond of n+1, and n+1, insofar as it has an editorial opinion on the matter, isn't fond of me. The magazine even demanded that I return the back issues I'd been sent to write my piece. (Keep 'em, Gessen.) Sadly, that phone call is as close to a knock-down, drag-out literary feud as I've come, though not for lack of trying. Coming home late at night I'm always disappointed to find that Marco Roth, who I've heard lives near my neighborhood, isn't leering from my stoop, swinging a billiard ball in a sock.

I check in on the gang from time to time, hoping to find something I like. Last time it was this, which I stopped reading before I decided whether I thought it was a parody or not—readers are welcome to set me straight on that point. But I was pleased to see this translation of an article by Taner Akçam, a friend of the murdered Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Akçam is the author of A Shameful Act, which came across my desk several months ago and which, on the basis of what I read, is recommended.

We can feel proud to be Turkish only if we can acknowledge the murderer for who he is. That is what we are doing today. By declaring, “We are all Armenians,” we know that we honor Turkishness; by identifying the true murderer, we create a Turkishness worth claiming.

Today we declare to the world that murder has nothing to do with Turkishness or Turkey. We are not going to leave Turkishness in the hands of murderers. Either Turkishness belongs to the murderers, or it belongs to us.

So credit is due to n+1 for that, even if it must share a space with the "semiotics of Payless."

So two crazy people just Skype'd me a second ago, at the same time. This is unusual, because normally they don't come in pairs. This is the story of one of them: batuhan (bartex341). Anyone speak Crazynese? 

batuhan 12/5/06 5:29 PM
helloo
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:30 PM
causing trouble?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:30 PM
what?
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:30 PM
exactly.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:31 PM
you men
12/5/06 5:31 PM
?
12/5/06 5:31 PM
women
12/5/06 5:31 PM

Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:31 PM
nope
batuhan 12/5/06 5:32 PM
ok
12/5/06 5:32 PM
e mail adress
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:32 PM
i am not an email address either
batuhan 12/5/06 5:32 PM
ok
12/5/06 5:32 PM
you photo pic??
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:32 PM
no, I am a human.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:33 PM
YEE
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:33 PM
HAWWW
batuhan 12/5/06 5:33 PM
JOB?
12/5/06 5:34 PM
I AM FROM TURKEY
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:34 PM
Hey, I always wondered... Why doesn't TURKEY just go feed HUNGARY?
12/5/06 5:35 PM
.. don't you wonder that?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:36 PM
STRANGE
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:37 PM
WHAT IS?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:37 PM
SOME ENGLİSH SPEAK
12/5/06 5:37 PM
OK
12/5/06 5:37 PM

12/5/06 5:37 PM
I AM
12/5/06 5:37 PM
OK
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:38 PM
GOOD. I AM OK TOO.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:38 PM

12/5/06 5:38 PM
OK
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:39 PM
THIS IS FUN.
12/5/06 5:39 PM

12/5/06 5:39 PM
WHY WE WINK?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:39 PM

Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:39 PM

batuhan 12/5/06 5:39 PM
to come papa
12/5/06 5:39 PM
PAPA TURKİŞH
12/5/06 5:40 PM
PAPA İS MÜSLİMAN
12/5/06 5:40 PM

12/5/06 5:40 PM
..MİGHT AS WELL
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:40 PM
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME BIG PAPA.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:41 PM

12/5/06 5:41 PM
FUTBALL TEAM
12/5/06 5:41 PM
?
12/5/06 5:41 PM
YOU?
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:41 PM
Yeah, I'm an all-star
batuhan 12/5/06 5:41 PM
NO
12/5/06 5:41 PM
TEAM
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:41 PM
Like.. The Cowboys?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:42 PM
YA
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:42 PM
THE COWBOYS then.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:42 PM
GALATASARAY
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:42 PM
WHAT THE HELL?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:42 PM
TO RECOGNİZE
12/5/06 5:42 PM
GALATASARAY TURKISH
12/5/06 5:42 PM
FUTBALŞL TEAM
12/5/06 5:43 PM
how old are you??
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:44 PM
22
12/5/06 5:44 PM
HOW OLD ARE YOU?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:44 PM
21
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:44 PM
IT'S LIKE WE'RE BROTHERS.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:44 PM
students
12/5/06 5:44 PM
?
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:45 PM
No.
12/5/06 5:45 PM
I like how you actually speak perfect English, but only when you're not typing in caps.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:45 PM
tamam
12/5/06 5:45 PM
yarın gorusuruz
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:46 PM
and apparently perfect Swahili, too
12/5/06 5:46 PM
you crazy nut.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:46 PM

12/5/06 5:46 PM
thanks
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:47 PM
you're welcome. So, how's Turkey?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:48 PM
turkey good
12/5/06 5:48 PM

12/5/06 5:48 PM
bad speak
12/5/06 5:48 PM

12/5/06 5:48 PM
thanks thanks
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:48 PM
you'll be here all week. Try the veal.
12/5/06 5:49 PM
You're a comedian.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:49 PM
yes
12/5/06 5:49 PM

12/5/06 5:49 PM
to make fun of you???
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:49 PM
are you like Jerry Seinfeld?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:49 PM

12/5/06 5:51 PM
hey man
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:51 PM
?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:52 PM
?
12/5/06 5:52 PM

12/5/06 5:52 PM
turkey turkey
12/5/06 5:52 PM
macaristannnnnnn
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:53 PM
Boy, I can't wait to post this.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:55 PM
fuck off
12/5/06 5:55 PM
fuck
12/5/06 5:56 PM
you?
12/5/06 5:56 PM

Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:56 PM
Yes, very good. Now you sound like an American.
batuhan 12/5/06 5:56 PM
ya ya
12/5/06 5:56 PM
fuck you
12/5/06 5:56 PM
cam
12/5/06 5:56 PM
you mail adress
12/5/06 5:57 PM
web cam
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:57 PM
what are you talking about?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:58 PM
ya
12/5/06 5:58 PM
05366661270
12/5/06 5:58 PM
ok
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:58 PM
is that your phone number?
12/5/06 5:58 PM
you want me to call you?
batuhan 12/5/06 5:59 PM
05366661270
12/5/06 5:59 PM
ok
12/5/06 5:59 PM
my phone number
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:59 PM
OK
12/5/06 5:59 PM
call it
12/5/06 5:59 PM
it's ringing
batuhan 12/5/06 5:59 PM
you phone number
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 5:59 PM
a woman picked up
12/5/06 6:00 PM
she said, "Klau khalash"
batuhan 12/5/06 6:00 PM
IAM MESAJ
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 6:00 PM
I asked her why Turkey doesn't just go feed Hungary?
batuhan 12/5/06 6:00 PM
NO UNDERSTAND
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 6:00 PM
She said, "YOU BUY IT, YOU BUY IT."
12/5/06 6:00 PM
Is this your mother?
batuhan 12/5/06 6:00 PM

12/5/06 6:00 PM
YA YOU MOTHER VİRGİN
12/5/06 6:01 PM

Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 6:01 PM
Yes, that's correct. I am the baby Jesus.
batuhan 12/5/06 6:04 PM
FUCK YOU
12/5/06 6:05 PM
YES İSA YES MUHAMMET
12/5/06 6:05 PM
MUHAMMED
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 6:07 PM
What?
12/5/06 6:07 PM
This is Muhammed?
12/5/06 6:07 PM
There's SO much I want to ask you!
12/5/06 6:11 PM
All right well listen Babaghanoush, I gotta go.
12/5/06 6:11 PM
It's been fun. I'll always treasure our time together.
batuhan 12/5/06 6:11 PM
NEAYAK
Craig Leinoff 12/5/06 6:13 PM
Yes.
12/5/06 6:13 PM
Bye.
batuhan 12/5/06 6:13 PM
NABER NASILSIN
12/5/06 6:13 PM
YABEN İYİYİM

So amidst all the Hadley memo leaking and civil war-defining in the day's news cycle comes word that the Ratz has given a Buddy Jesus thumbs up to the idea of Turkey joining the EU. Either this is his umpteenth mea culpa for that September speech about how Mohammed was a non-starter or the Holy Father is hoping that by bringing Ankara into Greater Christendom, the Gospels might become as fungible as passports. 

As Benedict continued his four-day visit, Turkey focused on his gestures on arrival on Tuesday: his apparent support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praise for Islam after a recent speech Muslims found insulting.

``This is a big warning for conservative politicians who think the EU is a Christian club,'' wrote daily Milliyet columnist Guneri Civaoglu.

``This is a big warning for conservative politicians who think the EU is a Christian club,'' wrote daily Milliyet columnist Guneri Civaoglu."

 

 

Members of a Turkish workers' union protesting the arrival of Pope Benedict. More here.

Orhan PamukTurkish writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk doesn’t mince his words. In a 2005 interview with the Swiss magazine Das Magazin, the novelist smashed two major taboos when he said, “Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.” In Turkey, a veil of silence surrounds the military’s violent suppression of the Kurdish independence movement, and the government still denies the existence of the Armenian genocide during WWI. By alluding to both of these ...