Saturday, April 18, 2009
Nothing like waiting till the last minute. Notice how the AP report pits Blacks and Jews against each other. I'll be interested to see how that plays out: US to boycott United Nations racism meeting
The Obama administration will boycott "with regret" a U.N. conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said Saturday.
The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against U.S. participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, would send an official delegation...
In other Durban news, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will be blogging the event for the Huffington Post. The comments on his first couple of posts are already becoming a cess-pool.
Interesting and related, here's South African Rev. Malcolm Hedding of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, dismantling some myths:
[h/t: Mark N.]
What's to regret, besides waiting until the last minute. And why is the administration "deeply grateful" over the meaningless cosmetic changes in the draft resolution?
I'm really concerned by the apparent conflict over this issue - the Black Congressional Caucus and other African/American leaders/interests obviously wanted to attend the Durban meeting.
However, it's impossible to fight racism from a racist platform.
I think it's important to heal the rift between Blacks and Jews here in the US; I don't really understand how or why this erupted in the first place and it's unfortunate that Durban has become a divisive issue. It's also unfortunate that Israeli and Jewish history are being lost in the shuffle. People appear to have forgotten even the recent past.