U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) wants to stop an anti-racism parley that he believes will unfairly attack Israel.
Cantor and three of his colleagues in the House of Representatives sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, on Dec. 13 urging him to pressure the United Nations not to fund the Durban Review Conference.
The review conference would be a continuation of the 2001 forum in South Africa, which the U.S. delegation walked out on after it digressed into an anti-Semitic and anti-Israel forum. Reps. Dave Weldon and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Florida Republicans, and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) also signed on to the letter. “It is clear to us that the 2009 conference, much like its predecessor, will reject Western values like tolerance and set back our efforts to foster peace in the Middle East,†Cantor wrote. “With dishonorable countries such as Iran on the conference’s planning committee, Durban II promises to deliver both anti-Semitism and unfounded allegations of Western Islamophobia.â€
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