Posted on 02/16/2009 11:22:59 AM PST by Nachum
The Foreign Ministry said on Sunday it will take a "wait and see" attitude after learning the Obama administration will participate in planning for a UN conference on racism dubbed "Durban II," despite concerns that the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel.
Anti-Zionist Jews and pro-Palestinian supporters participate in a protest march in Durban to coincide with the opening of the 2001 UN Racism Conference [archive]. Photo: AP [file]
Slideshow: Pictures of the week While the US has said it would decide at a later date whether to participate in the conference, the State Department on Saturday said that it would send diplomats to participate in preparatory meetings being held next week for the 2009 World Conference Against Racism, which is set to be held in Geneva on April 20-24 and which Israel and Canada have already decided to boycott.
Officials in the Foreign Ministry, however, played down the development, telling The Jerusalem Post they had faith in the decisions of the US administration.
"I think that we see eye to eye with the Americans on the subject of Durban II, and given statements made both by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the matter, it doesn't appear that they would continue taking part in the conference if they see outright anti-Semitism or the singling out of Israel by other members of the forum," said Eitan Levon, the Foreign Ministry's coordinator for the conference.
"If you look at the State Department's official statement, it says that their intent is to try to 'change the direction in which the review conference is heading,' and that their involvement now does not indicate that they will participate in April in the World Conference Against Racism itself, so I think that it's quite clear that they will walk away if they see the same kind of hate-fest developing as was the case in the previous forum," Levon said.
During the Bush administration in 2001, the United States and Israel walked out of the first UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, over efforts to pass a resolution equating Zionism to racism.
Those efforts failed, but there are signs the resolution may be reintroduced at the so-called "Durban II" meeting in Geneva and Israel has been actively lobbying the United States and European countries to stay away from this year's meeting.
Nonetheless, the apparent departure from the Bush administration's outright rejection of the conference has fueled speculation that Obama administration officials are at odds with one another over how to proceed.
One official who is reportedly pressuring Secretary of State Clinton to take part in Durban II is the new American Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, who was Obama's close campaign adviser and has pushed for the US to join the UN Human Rights Council, which was boycotted by the Bush administration, partly because of its one-sided criticism of Israel.
The other official reportedly pushing for American involvement in "Durban II" is Samantha Power, an Obama adviser at the National Security Council who participated in the initial Durban conference as the representative of an NGO and has a history of making controversial statements about Israel. In the past, Power expressed support for cutting US military assistance to Israel and using the funds as aid to build a Palestinian state.
Power resigned from the Obama campaign in March 2008, after a statement attributed to her appeared in The Scotsman newspaper, in which she called Hillary Clinton "a monster." Power retracted the statement in the wake of public reaction, and was brought into Obama's transition team after the elections.
"The secretary of state has clearly said in the past that the US should not take part in the conference," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, executive director of the Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor. "So apparently there are different points of view being exchanged within the administration."
Steinberg said the move was "troubling."
"The Obama administration has taken a very bold and risky plunge by attempting to change the hate-filled agenda," he said.
"It's a strong litmus test for the administration. Success [in changing the agenda] or an American-led walkout will restore moral leadership and US influence. But a failure which reinforces the first Durban attack on human rights will do long-term damage throughout the world."
There were no indications that Durban II would be any different than its predecessor, Steinberg said.
"This time around it could be even worse," he said. "In 2001, there were two parallel sessions, a governmental forum and then an NGO forum. It was the latter that used the wording of 'apartheid' and 'racism' against Israel, but now it seems that, even though it's unlikely that the NGOs will have a strong showing because of a lack of funding, the governments of Iran and Libya - who are heading the governmental forum - have adopted the same language as used by the NGOs in 2001."
Based on that, the Americans were facing an uphill battle, Steinberg said.
"The Europeans haven't succeeded in changing the language, and there have been negotiations going since October," he said.
"But the real question is, has the Obama administration really thought this through? I'm concerned that going into this blindly will cause a lot of damage, and could even have a negative impact on the peace process. It will be hard for any Israeli government to accept a proposal by Senator [George] Mitchell if the US is involved in this, because if the same Arab countries that are part of the Saudi peace plan are the ones leading this demonization of Israel, and the rest of the world is part of the process, it's incompatible. You can't say that Israel is an apartheid state, apply the South Africa model - which basically aims to annihilate Israel as a Jewish state, and then continue with peace negotiations."
"If the US has not changed the language or the direction of the forum in two to three weeks," Steinberg said, "they will need to lead a walk-out for it to have any significance. After that, it will be too late."
AP contributed to this report.
Everytime I think it cannot get worse....
The List
Week Four
Obama administration will participate in planning for a UN conference on racism dubbed "Durban II," despite concerns that the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel.
the White House is looking to install a small video or computer screen into the podium used by the president for press conferences and events in the White House. "It would make it easier for the comms guys to pass along information without being obvious about it," says the adviser.
Obama is disses the Brit's most famous and stalwart leader, Winston Churchill by returning the most famous bust of the man loaned to this country by the United Kingdom in the aftermath of 9//11
Obama has begun to indicate that he's willing to reconsider the Bush administration’s push to deploy a ballistic missile defense system, contrary to his repeated campaign promises to the contrary.
Obama's main advisor David Axelrod changes his goes back on Obama's position on the Fairness doctrine. He would not give definitive answer and left room for the Fairness Doctrine to be revisited.
Third week in office
Obama changes the setup of the National Security Councel by executive order
Shauna Daly, professional “dirt digger” hired as “White House councel research director”
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel got free housing from House rep (D) Rosa DeLauro for 5 years . DeLauro is married to Stan Greenberg; a pollster (Quinlin Rosner Research) with lucrative contracts from both that representatives.
A Syrian paper reported that the Obama U.S. Dept. of Commerce agreed to sell plane parts to Syria
A lawyer for the Obama administration surprised a panel of federal appeals judges by making an argument to preserve state secrets in a trial regarding terrorism subjects. This argument was made, after repeatedly attacking the Bush administration for doing the same thing.
President Obama said Monday that "only government" can shake the country out of recession, as he tried to settle doubts about his administration's costly economic recovery package during a prime-time press conference.
Obama reverses Bush policy on 'warming' Federal agencies settle long-standing case in favor of environmentalists. The U.S. will now refuse to help finance development overseas if the environmental establishment claims that it would contribute to 'global warming
Deborah Burlingame, a 9/11 family member who lost her brother Chip during the 9/11 attacks, spoke to media at the National Press Club about her meeting with President Obama.
He said he was not at all worried about the security of the American people in bringing the detainees here. Not in the least worried about that. His reasoning was this: ‘ Al Qaeda doesn’t have conscience they’re not interested in going back and springing these guys. They’re forgotten once they are put away in our federal facilities. He said, furthermore there are so many soft targets in the United States, like a shopping mall, why would Al Qaeda go after a hard target like a federal lock up or military prison, when they could choose a soft target.’
Burlingame later added that Obama was “non-committal” about visiting Guantanamo Bay when she asked him
Interior Secretary Salazar Kills Bush Offshore drilling plan Saying “we need bring sanity back into our energy policy….
Obama gave two high level positions to former Citibank executives (Jacob J. Lew, and Michael Froman) who helped run Citibank into the ground and raises questions of conflict of interest .
Republicans are shut out of the Stimulus conference negotiations.
Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind):“(the stimulus package…)is being crafted without a single House Republican in the room.”
Obama in 2007:End the Practice of Writing Legislation Behind Closed Doors: (from Obama’s website: http://change.gov/agenda/ethics_agenda/)
Defense lobbyist William Lynn approved as deputy defense secretary. Obama waives ethics regulations by putting the ex-defense lobbyist in charge of day-to-day operations at the Pentagon. Obama violates promise to keep lobbyists out of the federal government. On his first day in office, Obama issued an executive order forcing individuals to wait two years before they could be hired for the agencies they had lobbied, violating his own executive order less than three weeks in office.
Obama appoints Gil Kerlikowske to be the nation’s new drug czar. Kerlikowske has established himself as a devoted lobbyist for every restrictive gun law proposal.
Obama controls the press core at the White House: Chicago Sun Times Writer Carol Marin writes: “The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.”
Obama demonstrates dangerous ignorance of the Classified Information Procedures Act or CIPA by the president. This was witnessed by Debra Burlingame, sister sister of Charles Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, at White House meeting of families of terrorism victims
President Obama today repeated the claim that Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off." But after the president left the event, Owens said the exact opposite.
Defending the White House in the wake of Sen. Judd Gregg's withdrawal as Commerce Secretary, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said it is not "amateur hour"
Obama Now Believes Iran Is Nuke Threat. In 2007, Obama said the opposite, “"It is absolutely clear that this administration and President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology."
"They need, now, to aggressively move on the diplomatic front."
"They should have stopped the saber rattling -- should never have started it," said Obama.
Obama interfering with Israeli Government Formation
The U.S. official position is that it looks forward to "working with any government," but in back-channel messages the Obama administration has made it clear it would like to see a unity government in Jerusalem over a narrow right-wing government which would in all likelihood result in a freeze in peace talks with the Palestinians.
Aides to Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Friday that Washington officials did indeed relay the message while associates of Kadima chief Tzipi Livni denied receiving such a message.
Obama brakes campaign promise to wait 5 days before signing any legislation on stimulus bill. Second time he broke this promise in his first month in office
The List ping
CNS NEWS.com: "OBAMA'S POLICY SHIFT ON DURBAN RACISM CONFERENCE DRAWS CONCERN, CRITICISM" by Patrick Goodenough (SNIPPET: "Arguing that "Islamophobia" is a "contemporary form of racism," the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is using Durban II to further its campaign to have religious "defamation" outlawed -- a drive which critics say is designed to prevent criticism of Islam and practices associated with it.") (February 16, 2009)
THE MEMRI BLOG.org ("Source: Shahab News, Iran, January 19, 2009"): "IRANIAN MAJLIS DISCUSSES BILL TO ESTABLISH 'ISLAMIC WORLD ARMY'" (SNIPPET: "It was proposed that this army would be part of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.") (Posted January 22, 2009)
FOX NEWS.com: "U.N. ANTI-BLASPHEMY RESOLUTION CURTAILS FREE SPEECH, CRITICS SAY" by Jennifer Lawinski (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Religious groups and free-speech advocates are banding together to fight a United Nations resolution they say is being used to spread Sharia law to the Western world and to intimidate anyone who criticizes Islam.") (October 3, 2008)
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