U.S. pulling out of Durban II conference‏

The good news is that the United States has pulled out of the Durban II conference.

The bad news is that, knowing the antisemitic and hypocritical nature of Durban I, the new presidential administration even considered participating in Durban II.


From JTA:

The Obama administration has decided to boycott the so-called Durban II conference out of concerns for anti-Semitism.

Multiple sources on a conference call with the White House on Friday told JTA that the Obama administration had opted not to attend any further preparatory meetings ahead of the planned U.N. conference against racism in Geneva in April.

The conference reprises the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all. Canada and Israel have opted not to attend the conference, and some U.S. Jewish groups had been pressing the United States to do the same.

Preparations for a draft document so far have seen Iran leading a coterie of nations blocking inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections – including mention of the Holocaust – while inserting draconian language guarding Islam against "insult."

The State Department sent a delegation, including a senior staffer from the American Jewish Committee, to this month's preparatory talks. The delegation's conclusions were that the anti-Israel and anti-Western tendencies were too deeply entrenched to excise.

Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow.

This conference is an organized, well-funded movement to dehumanize Israel in any way possible. The international community and world media ignore the daily attacks on Israel committed by terrorists from Gaza, the West Bank and even Arabs living within Israel who have taken it upon themselves to commit acts of violence against Israelis. At Durban I there was no mention of Palestinians harmed by fellow Palestinians or Arabs. Nor was there a mention of acts of genocide and violence carried out by Muslims against certain ethnic groups—some Muslim groups (such as Kurds) and non-Muslims (such as the Sudanese).

The only true democracy in the Middle East is demonized and attacked. Polls show that Jews are hated in the countries that the critics of Israel say the Jews should "go back to" and the international community continues to ignore the fact that more than half of all Israelis who are descended from the Jews of Middle Eastern countries were forced out.

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Posted in: Anti-Israelism,Anti-Semitism,Durban,United States