Durban II "Getting Worse Every Day", US Delegation Silently Accepting Vicious Anti-Israel and Anti-Jewish Clauses
This is a conference on racism and human rights chaired by Libya and co-chaired by Iran and Cuba. There's no mention of the Holocaust. There's no reference to the waves of anti-Semitism that are cascading across Europe. Because why would those be relevant? It's more important to ban criticism of Islam and blame the West for a litany of historical wrongs. And of course, to demonize the Jewish State.
When Obama's anti-Israel advisers pushed the US into Durban II they didn't demand any changes as a condition for our participation. They were going to show up with zero leverage and then somehow they were going to change the course of the conference. Obviously that wasn't going to work. But even I thought that they would at least make an effort. Apparently not so much:
This put the Holocaust provision in dispute. But the American delegation chose not to go on the record strongly supporting the EU's proposal, as it had on other items. Not a peep came from the "change the direction in which the Review Conference is heading" folks. Here's an even more troubling example, this time involving a paragraph the Palestinian delegation proposed Tuesday in the presence of the American representatives... Dead silence again, despite the fact that an objection could have made a real difference by putting the paragraph unequivocally in dispute. Everybody knew that there was no other country-specific provision in the 250-paragraph-plus document. Yet there were no comments objecting to the idea of singling out Israel in an anti-racism manifesto, and no call for a paragraph decrying racism in any other state... the new paragraph is scheduled to appear... it didn't take President Obama's delegation two days before it sat in silence while Israel was singled out as guilty of racism - again.
Besides issues relating to Israel, the draft has problematic paragraphs regarding free speech, defamation of religion and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, [Ambassador to the United Nations Geneva Roni Leshno Yaar] said. "At this stage it is not possible to say what in the text would improve, if at all. In fact I expect the text to get only worse on all issues which are important for western democracy...[a] paragraph calls for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and refers to the "racial policies of the occupying power." Israel itself is not named in the document, although the reader can clearly understand where it is being referenced... In the last week, the Palestinians tried to introduce language into the document regarding the 2004 advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice at The Hague against the security barrier, said Leshno Yaar. The Americans were present but did not appear to have made improvement in the document, which he said "is getting worse every day."
At least Obama's people didn't eat up a couple news cycles by privately and publicly misleading Jewish leaders about the US's deafening silence:
The Obama administration's decision to join the planning of the U.N.'s Durban II "anti-racism" conference has just taken a new twist: cover-up. On Friday, State Department officials and a member of the American Durban II delegation claimed the United States had worked actively to oppose efforts to brand Israel as racist in the committee drafting a Durban II declaration. The trouble is that they didn't.... One member of the delegation told The Washington Post: "The administration is pushing back against efforts to brand Israel as racist in this conference." In fact, tucked away in a Geneva hall with few observers, the U.S. had done just the opposite. The U.S. delegates had made no objection to a new proposal to nail Israel in an anti-racism manifesto that makes no other country-specific claims...Following what was clearly a planned public relations exercise, Washington Post columnist Colum Lynch championed the U.S. bravado in an article based on the story orchestrated by the American delegates... he fawned: "The Obama administration on Thursday concluded its first round of politically charged U.N. negotiations on racism, pressing foreign governments ... to desist from singling out Israel for criticism in a draft declaration to be presented at a U.N. conference in April." The reality, however, was nothing of the sort. Instead, Obama's Durban II team slipped easily into the U.N.'s anti-Israel and anti-Jewish environs, taking the approach that "fitting in" was best accomplished by staying silent.
Wait? Mainstream media outlets are involved in helping American liberals ignore the Obama administration's anti-Israel advisers and platform? The hell you say! I guess I should be grateful that the press is covering this at all. When the State Department originally announced their intention to legitimize this hatefest, they dumped the news out with the trash so it wouldn't get picked up.
You know what would be really bad? If in addition to not helping, US participation was actually preventing other countries from objecting.
References:
* Austrian Jews Too Terrified To List Their Children As Jewish (Plus: Europe Reaches An Anti-Jewish Tipping Point) [MR]
* Sweden Bars Israeli Taekwondo Team Because "Ten Thousand Muslims" Will Attack Them (Anti-Jewish Violence Skyrocketing Across The Country) [MR]
* Durban 2 to slam 'racist Israel' [YNet]
* EYEontheUN ALERT - DURBAN WATCH January 29, 2009 [Eye On The UN]
* Obama's Anti-Israel Advisers Push US Into Durban II [MR]
* Durban II Planning [Anne Bayefsky / NRO]
* Durban II draft document 'getting worse' [JPost]
* Obama officials meet U.S. Jews to explain their Durban II policy [Ha'aretz]
* The Obama Administration Sacrifices Israel [Anne Bayefsky / Forbes]
* Obama's Durban Dalliance [WSJ]
* Obama's Durban II Participation Undermining European And Israeli Objections [MR]
Previously:
* "Could It Be That Anti-Semitism Is Again Prevalent In Germany?"
* Israeli Flag Now Functionally Illegal In Germany And Britain Because It "Provokes" Violent Anti-Semitic Mobs
* Israeli Public Diplomacy Expert : British Boycott Is Vicious Anti-Semitism
