RJC Calls for “Clear, Principled, and Final” Durban 2 Position Equivocating and Flip-Flopping Must Stop
RJC, April 14, 2009
Washington, D.C. (April 14, 2009) The Republican Jewish Coalition today called on President Obama to end the guessing game about whether the administration will follow through on its pledge not to participate in the United Nations’ discredited World Conference Against Racism (Durban 2) next week in Geneva.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday: “Senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York are leaning in favor of participating” in Durban 2. Yesterday, the State Department issued a statement that applauded revisions that have apparently been made in the working group draft statement upon which the conference will be based. The statement concluded by expressing the hope “that the United States can re-engage the conference process with the hope of arriving at a conference document that we can support.” The Jerusalem Post reported that “the wrangling over the contents of the draft outcome document for the Durban review could continue throughout the week, leaving the US presence up in the air until right before the conference begins.”
This is very disturbing news for American Jews and others who support Israel, since it raises the prospect that the Obama administration will renege on its previous commitment to boycott this conference. Durban II is a follow-up to the original Durban conference of 2001, and is expected to be a venue for the same kind of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-Western tirades that led President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to withdraw the U.S. from the first conference.
Yesterday, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) wrote to Secretary of State Clinton to warn that “the latest working group draft statement is still fundamentally unacceptable. The very first clause reaffirms the hate-filled declarations of the 2001 Durban Conference, which singled out only one country in the world for condemnation – Israel.” The bipartisan pair urged Clinton to “reaffirm” the Obama administration’s “pledge not to attend the hate-filled Durban conference.” [4] The RJC strongly agrees with this bipartisan congressional sentiment.
Concerns that the 2009 conference would devolve into an anti-Israel gathering have been further fueled by the news that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad will join the proceedings. Ahmadinejad’s long history of Holocaust denial and genocidal threats against Israel make his plans an ominous signal as to the real trend in Geneva.
The latest administration signals leave an impression of a new diplomatic team determined to turn what could have been an opportunity for principled leadership into a fiasco that promotes disarray within the UN’s democratic bloc.
We urge President Obama to act quickly and unambiguously: End this guessing game and affirm the pledge he made to be resolute in opposition to anti-Semitism in the international arena by issuing a clear, principled, and final statement that the United States will not participate in this dangerous and discredited conference.
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Divining the future by looking at the past tells me that America will attend this conference. Susan Rice already missed a chance to speak up in a previous meeting. Trying to change something that is 99% evil by joining it is an exercise in futility. But exercises in futility seems to be the new road that the Obama administration is bent on traveling.
What happened to fighting evil by shunning it, exposing it, speaking out against it? Is it now considered old-fashioned to do these things?
The islamic participants in Durban II have no desire to change their stance on Israel. They enjoy it too much to give it up for their other enemy, America.
Given the way the Obama administration has already treated the new Israeli government, it would seem that they will fit right in with those people. Change a word or two, then pretend everything is all right.
Since President Obama has already told the world that America is not a Christian or Jewish nation, it is expecting too much for him to use Christian or Jewish principles to discern good and evil. He already has a history of associating with evil people. This will be a continuation of the same.
Once again, I will hope for the best and expect the worse. I doubt President Obama will surprise me.
This administration has no principles. It is far more concerned with placating and ingratiating itself with the muslim world then taking a stand for what is right. If that means remaining silent in the face of muslim anti-semitism so as not to rock the boat, then this is what the obama administration will do. I am predicting that in the end they will attend durban II with cosmetic changes made to the conference document to give the administration cover to justify its attendance all the while publicly pretending these are real changes which took place through the effort of the Obama administration itself.
PTI (Pardon The Interruption)
Sorry Folks
“Breaking News” (you can tell I am a FOX New Junkie)
Iran announces its desire to sit down with the US .
Ahmadinejad: Damn the Israeli PM says if the US doesn’t take action against Iran
Israel will.
Mullahs: Mr. President, you wet your pants!!!
Ahmadinejad: Shit, Israel is not one to make an idle threat.
Contact the US and tell them we are willing to sit down and discuss our
Nuclear ambitions.
Obama will be able to convince Israel to step back from this threat.
Obama: Ahmadinejad want us to tell Israel to back off.
Shit, we are pushing for a 2 state solution and proving funds to the
Palestinians and Hamas. Right now I couldn’t get a free ride on a
bus in Jerusalem.
Emanuel we need your help, you’re a Jew aren’t you.
Emanuel: Just a liberal American Jew. Israel who??
I guess I am just a dumb ass liberal Jew who forgot my heritage.
Obama: What about Hillary, George Mitchell, Holbrooke or Kerry.
Emanuel: Hey boss, no bus ride for them either. In fact they don’t want to get
near a bus in Jerusalem for fear they will get thrown under it.
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