The ADL Motto: If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it!
Durban II Tainted (Los Angeles Times) 03/11/09
Letters to the Editor
Los Angeles Times March 11, 2009
To the Editor:
We applaud the U.S. decision not to participate in the Durban Review Conference. As your editorial ("Obama's Diplomacy Test," 3/9) points out, "the draft document reportedly contains provisions that no freedom- or peace-loving nation could possibly support."
The Obama administration made a good-faith effort to persuade the conference to focus on fighting hate violence, racism and discrimination worldwide. However, the U.S. team concluded that the direction of the conference would be tainted by the very bigotry and vitriol it was meant to counter, and plainly could not be reversed.
The draft document is abhorrent not only in its single-minded focus on criticism of Israel, but in attempts to prevent Holocaust remembrance and to establish a global blasphemy code for Islam.
The 2001 Durban conference started with noble goals to counter international racism. Unfortunately, the entire proceeding was monopolized and infected by an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel agenda. Now, in 2009, it is clear from the start that this will be a forum centered on demonizing and delegitimizing Israel.
The U.S. should be commended, along with other responsible countries, for refusing to march blindly into another tainted conference.
Sincerely,
The Anti-Defamation League