by Yaakov Ahimeir
Israel has therefore found itself in a delicate situation, between a rock and a hard place. And as a result, it has all but forgotten to take the obvious diplomatic-moral step
If there
is one word Israeli official are not going to mention publicly when
talking about Armenia, it is the word genocide. Armenia clearly wants
Israel to recognize the 1915 Armenian genocide, and despite the Israeli
government going out of its way to bolster relations with the country,
President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have
consistently steered clear of this word.
We have full diplomatic
ties with Armenia, with ambassadors in both capitals, but you can count
on senior Israeli official to avoid any recognition of the Armenian
genocide, making Israel one of the last holdouts in this regard.
Regional Cooperation
Minister Tzachi Hanegbi recently visited the country and signed economic
agreements with Armenia. Hanegbi's visit received scant coverage in the
media, unlike Netanyahu's foreign visits. The diplomatic lingo has
provided Israeli officials many Hebrew alternatives to choose from when
describing this genocide, which claimed the lives of 800,000 to 1.5
million people. Our diplomats use the words "tragedy" or "massacre" and
various other words.
During his visit there,
Hanegbi went out of his way to show his hosts where his heart truly
lies. He visited the official Armenian genocide memorial in the capital
Yerevan and the nearby museum. He wrote in the guest book that the world
must make sure that such an event never recurs and that it will never
be forgotten. During his tour of the museum he found a book from the
1920s -- some two decades before the Holocaust that killed 6 million
Jews -- with the title "The Armenian Holocaust." He also got the
impression that Armenians generally understand Israel's reluctance to
recognize the Armenian tragedy as genocide. Maybe the lofty Armenians
that Hanegbi spoke to understood. Maybe they agreed. Maybe.
Hanegbi is not the only
high-ranking Israeli official who evades using the term. When Rivlin
was Knesset speaker, he went out of his way to demonstrate how much he
cared for this issue and whenever the matter came up in the plenum, he
would make it abundantly clear where his heart lies. In fact, people
close to Rivlin say his pro-Armenian sentiment is very much on display
now that he is president. He has agreed to meet activists from
Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter, and they have expressed hope that he would
eventually say something along the lines of "Yes, a genocide took
place." Rivlin wants to visit Armenia, but the Foreign Ministry in
Jerusalem has made it clear that he must not say, "I, the president of
the State of Israel, recognize the Armenian genocide." God forbid he
utters those words, here or there.
Over the years, Israel
has bowed to Turkish pressure on this issue, but with Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly insulting Israel, this capitulation makes
little sense. In fact, Azerbaijan, currently engaged in a bitter
territorial dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, has
gradually replaced the role of Turkey and this is clearly evident in the
excellent defense ties Jerusalem maintains with Baku.
Armenia has complained
that Azerbaijan's extensive procurement of defense systems from Israel
has cost the lives of many Armenians defending the landlocked region.
Following his meeting with Hanegbi, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister
Armen Papikyan said Israel was willing to sell weapons to Yerevan as
well. This will result in Israeli weapons being used to spill both Azeri
and Armenian blood.
Israel has therefore
found itself in a delicate situation, between a rock and a hard place.
And as a result, it has all but forgotten to take the obvious
diplomatic-moral step: recognizing the Armenian genocide.
Yaakov Ahimeir
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19601
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