Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Israel's President drew a direct historical link between the world's failure to prevent the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. The president made such statement in a closed session with journalists held last week in Jerusalem in honor of Israel Independence Day.
"The Nazis," he said, "used the Armenian genocide as something that gave them permission to bring the Holocaust into reality."
Rivlin also welcomed Pope Francis's April 12 statement, in which he referred to the slaughter of the Armenians as the "first genocide of the Twentieth Century." "This is important to Christians, Jews, Muslims-to human beings," Rivlin said.
It is not the first time Rivlin makes such statements. Nevertheless, in Dec 2014, he refused to sign the annual message calling on Israel to official recognize the Armenian Genocide.
According to the Armenian Assembly of America, around the world, the Jewish community is rallying in support of official acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. Jewish leaders and organizations have joined the call for the U.S. government to officially characterize the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago as genocide. In the past 24 hours, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the American Jewish Committee, and the editorial board of Jewish Week condemned the atrocities of 1915.
Nevertheless, Tel-Aviv's stand on the Armenian Genocide is uncertain. In a speech before the United Nations commemorating the Holocaust the following month, however, Rivlin implicitly recognized the Armenian genocide and drew a direct connection between the world's failure to act in 1915, again during the Holocaust, and then again in subsequent genocides around the world. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, publicly denies the fact of Genocide and actively support the Turkish-Azerbaijani lobby.