Regering Obama trekt VS terug uit Durban II conferentie

 

Het leek er even op dat de VS op zijn eerdere voornemen uit de conferentie te stappen terug wou komen, maar ook het nieuwe State Department is tot de conclusie gekomen dat de extreme anti-Israël hetze die onder leiding van Libië, Iran en Cuba wordt bekokstoofd en de steun voor eenieder die geweld tegen Israel voorstaat, geen enkele steun verdient en een zichzelf respecterende democratie daarbij niks te zoeken heeft. Hopelijk volgen veel landen het voorbeeld van de VS. Racisme bestrijdt je niet met racisme en met demonisering van de enige Joodse staat.

 

RP

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Obama administration pulls US out of Durban II conference

U.S. pulling out of 'Durban II' conference
By Ron Kampeas · February 27, 2009

 

WASHINGTON (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.

 

Speaking for the White House on Friday's call were Samantha Power and James Warlick, who handle international organizations for, respectively, the national security council and the State Department; and Jennifer Simon, an adviser to Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.