ISRAEL COMMEMORATES 100TH YEAR TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

In Israel, despite the cowardice still taking place in official government recognition, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 1915:

Hundreds of Armenians and Israelis alike took part in events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Israel Friday, despite Israel's failure to recognize the mass killings as genocide.

Armenian Jerusalemites gathered in their quarter of the old city on April 24th for a commemorative ceremony during which the head of the Armenian church of Jerusalem rang the bells at the Church of St. James 100 times, symbolic of the centenary of the massacre.

Israel does not formally recognize the genocide diplomatically, nor is the historical event taught in Israeli schools.

Turkey, one of Israel's few peaceful friends in the region, vehemently denies that the deaths were part of a “genocide.” Although it does acknowledge that many Christians were killed by Turkish Ottomans during World War I, it insists that the deaths were part of warfare, and not systematic in nature.

Well here's where this article turns stupefyingly propagandistic. After several years of Recep Erdogan's anti-Israelism unmasked, Turkey cannot be called one of its few "peaceful" friends. And the Post has the gall to claim otherwise? That's very low. Also worth noting here is how this weakness has played into the hands of an anti-religious left-wing party:

“As Jewish people, who went through the Holocaust and know what Holocaust denial means and fight it to this day, we have the moral imperative to show sensitivity to the tragedies of other nations and not deny that genocide took place in the past and continues to happen today.” Meretz Chairwoman Zehava Gal-On said while speaking at the commemoration ceremony in the Armenian quarter. "We must understand the implications of ignoring [other genocides] and recognize the suffering... just as the pope and European Parliament did by recognizing the Armenian Genocide.”

What's ludicrous is that she's one of the same people who've been adamant about endangering Israel to the PLO/Hamas, which obviously makes her own alleged support for Armenia hypocritical. Yet it's amazing a party like Gal-On's would still care, because some liberal politicians quietly dropped support for recognition of Armenia's tragedy when they realized it would only anger Turkey's Islamists, whom they see as allies, and you can be sure Meretz would too.

And Reuven Rivlin didn't make things any better after he upset an archbishop with a weak description:

A quarter of a century ago, as an MK, Reuven Rivlin broke the taboo on acknowledging the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Later, as speaker of Knesset, he defied government attempts to have the same subject removed from the Knesset’s agenda and gave the podium to MKs from across the political spectrum to air their views. The Armenian Genocide was a subject of consensus for all legislators.

On Sunday, Rivlin invited some of those former MKs to the President’s Residence, along with Armenian religious and lay leaders, writers Haim Gouri and Haim Be’er, plus IDC President Uriel Reichman, and noted historian Yehuda Bauer, who had also identified strongly with Armenian suffering.

In his address, Rivlin noted that in 1915 members of the Armenian nation were being massacred and some of them found shelter in Jerusalem, including among members of his own family. No one in Jerusalem denied the massacre, he said. “We are morally obligated to point out the facts as horrible as they are and not to ignore them.”

This year, for the first time, the Knesset sent a delegation to Yerevan to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

Rivlin said in his opening remarks that the Armenian people were among the first victims of modern mass killing.

Archbishop Aris Shirvanian took Rivlin to task, reminding him that he was in the Knesset when Rivlin spoke of the Armenian Genocide. To now refer to it as a “mass killing” was a regressive move, he said.

“I am disappointed,” said Shirvanian, chiding the president.

“This was a backward step on your part. You should have been more courageous as president.”

And I agree with the priest. Maybe it was just a gaffe Rivlin made. But if he chose his wording deliberately, that was incredibly stupid, and it won't do anything to change the thinking of a country that supported the Mavi Marmara jihadists a few years ago.