Ben Smith at Politico:
White House aides told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the United States will boycott the United Nations' World Conference on Racism over hostility to Israel in draft documents prepared for the April conference.
The aides, including an advisor to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Jennifer Simon, and longtime Obama advisor Samantha Power, said the administration will not participate in further negotiations on the current text or participate in a conference based on the text, sources on the call said.
They left open the option of re-engaging on a "much shorter, much different text," a source said.
The draft outcome document, typically negotiated in advance and available here (.pdf), contains sharp and specific criticism of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, and Western European nations and Canada have also signaled that they may boycott the conference in Geneva.
The conference is known informally as Durban II after a 2001 conference in South Africa that included a heavy focus on Israel and calls to reinstate a U.N. resolution equating Zionism and racism. Libya is chairing the preparatory meetings for this year's conference, one of several factors prompting boycott calls.
Obama is expected to issue a statement on the subject later this afternoon, and the participants were asked not to discuss the call until a formal statement is released.
Some of the comments are sickening and bring to mind the phrase, "the arrogance of ignorance." If something sounds even vaguely anti-Israel, people are ever so anxious to jump on board and defend it... even if they have no understanding of what's involved. It doesn't help that Smith omits the specifics of the "several factors" prompting nations to boycott this obscenity.
(Hey Ben, see Anne Bayefsky's encyclopedic Durban Watch for the background which you lack, consider unworthy of mention, or purposely ignore.)
A little over a week ago, Rick Richman wrote at contentions that Obama was
in the process of making either a low-level, half-hearted diplomatic effort before withdrawing from Durban II, or a low-level, half-hearted diplomatic effort before participating in it: we will learn which in due course.
So here we are at "due course," but the Obamalot is slippery lot, leaving open "the option of re-engaging." Let's hope that, even though the Israel Lobby is no longer widely respected, it is still feared (and revered) in some circles.
In Genesis/Bereshis of the Holy Torah:
He (Ishmael) will be a wild man. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him. Still he will dwell undisturbed among all his brothers.
Then, in Numbers/Bamidbar, the pagan prophet Balaam means to curse Am Yisrael but is forced by Hashem to bless us instead:
... from their beginning, I see them as mountain peaks, and I behold them as hills; it is a nation that will dwell alone, and will not be reckoned among the nations.
Rashi explains:
It is a nation that will dwell alone: This is [the legacy] their forefathers gained for them - to dwell alone, as the Targum [Onkelos] renders it [it is a nation that is alone destined to inherit the world].
and will not be reckoned among the nations: As Targum [Onkelos] paraphrases, they will not perish along with the other nations, for it says, “for I shall make an end of all the nations…” (Jer. 30:11); they will not be reckoned with the rest. Another interpretation: When they rejoice, no other nation rejoices with them, as it says, “God alone will guide them [to future happiness]” (Deut. 32:12) ....
Yehi ratzon... May it be Your will, Hashem our Gd and the Gd of our ancestors.
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