Israel, US To Boycott Durban II Human Rights Conference.

[Purveyor]

Israel, the US and Canada will boycott the Durban II conference in early 2009 unless they receive firm guarantees that the event will not turn into an anti-Israel re-run at the previous United Nations Conference on human rights in 2001.

The Israeli decision was taken several weeks ago after Foreign Ministry consultations with the State Department and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, local media said.

Last week major American newspapers ran an advertisement signed by 25 public figures denouncing the conference as a platform for anti-Semitism bound "to encourage hatred of Israel and the US" and urged the Administration to stay away.

Jerusalem fears that it's human rights record is again likely to take a center stage bashing, while "rampant racism, religious persecution and intolerance of foreigners other parts of the world are ignored," a Jerusalem official said.

"Israel is sorry that the UN Secretary General and the UN Human Rights commission are not doing enough to change the content despite their dissatisfaction."

---EOE---

http://www.scopical.com.au/articles/Sport/4147/Israel__US_to_boycott_Durban_II_Human_Rights_conference_

[Jim Sagle]

1. Ahh yess...

[4dsc]

2. Anti-semitism and anti-Israeli are not the same thing

Who the hell wrote this piece seem not to understand the difference between anti-semitism and anti-Israel.. Heck, true jews don't believe in the modern state of Israel.. Does that make them anti-semitic or anti-Israel??

[Jim Sagle]

3. "true jews don't believe in the modern state of Israel"?

Hogwash. Some true Jews don't believe, most do.

BTW, the correct capitalization is Jews, not jews. FWIW.

[Igel]

4. Not in theory.

The problem is that there's an overlap in practice, so it's often difficult to know *why* a person is opposed to Israel.

The asymmetry in the choice of facts that supporters or I vs. P usually have can be ascribed to any number of factors, some personal, some ideological, some religious, some ethnic, some positive ("I prefer X"), some negative ("I disprefer Y"). Once they've made the selection of facts you can't always, or at least easily, tell why the selection was made. There are all kinds of reasons for bias, just as there are all kinds of ways to justify it.


BTW, what's a "true Jew"?