Boycott the bashfest

UN Watch in the News

New York Daily News
January 12, 2009

The Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – without mentioning Hamas and without providing defensive security for Israel – was but one example of the hostility to the Jewish state that has become ingrained in the United Nations.

Examples abound. There’s the UN Human Rights Council, which has condemned Israel four times more than all other states of the world combined – states that include North Korea, Zimbabwe, Burma and Cuba.

And there’s the UN’s upcoming 2nd World Conference Against Racism, a noble-sounding conclave set for Geneva in April. Organizers have published a draft declaration of guiding principles. To call the ideas ugly is to be kind. “Vile” is more like it.

The sentiments follow naturally from those expressed at the first such conference, held in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. Once more, in a world where regimes grind people under, America and Israel are the roots of all evil – along with freedom of speech.

As exposed by UN Watch, the draft declaration says, “freedom of expression, counterterrorism and national security” make racism and racial discrimination harder to defeat.

It calls for curbing “Islamophobia,” even “when it takes cover behind the freedom of expression” or “hides behind the war against terrorism.”

And harkening back to Islamic fury over Danish cartoons, the draft “urges states to take . . . action against negative stereotyping of religions and defamation of religious personalities . . . and symbols.”

The draft says Israeli use of checkpoints and blockades “contradicts the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” There is, of course, no mention that Israel uses those measures to prevent suicide bombings and rocket attacks by Palestinians.

In September, the European Union warned that the conference must not single out a region of the world (i.e., Israel) and must not seek a ban against defamation of religion. The draft declaration does both.

Canada turned its back on the conference months ago. Now, EU members and, most importantly, the U.S. must do the same. The Bush administration pulled out when the 2001 session degenerated into anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic ranting.

The new proceedings will be no different. The U.S. must condemn them and announce that America will not participate. The duty will fall to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in that Condoleezza Rice took a pass on standing up for what’s right.