The Obama administration has decided to boycott the United Nations Durban II conference "against racism" in Geneva in April, along with Canada and Israel, out of concerns for anti-Semitism.
The conference revisits the 2001 Durban conference in South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all.The 2001 Durban conference hosted and encouraged the grass-roots antisemitism which is broadening on campuses and in Trade Unions.
Preparations for a draft Durban II document have seen Iran leading several nations to focus attention on Israel's defensive and retaliatory actions at the exclusion of far more sinister and deadly actions taken by other nations, and to block the inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections – including mention of the Holocaust – at the same time inserting harsh penalties designed to guard Islam against "insult."
Now that the United States is withdrawing from the conference, European nations are expected to follow.
This swift and clear-eyed decision demonstrates that the U.S. government speaks with a consistent moral voice against the singling out of Israel for condemnation in the United Nations, and is determined to engage in a fight against racism that is free from the politicization and hatred that has plagued the Durban Review Conference process.
