Durban has become a dirty word in some international circles, a reminder of the 2001 U.N. anti-racism conference that devolved into an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish debacle. Now as preparations for a follow-up conference proceed, worries abound that efforts to once again villify Israel and the West are gaining the upper hand. One U.N. watcher analyzes the… More ▸
The saga continues … Iran’s president, meeting last night with an inter-religious group that included a rabbi, was met with protests outside the Manhattan hotel where the encounter took place. Earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad met with some media bigwigs for breakfast, as recounted by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post. The Chicago Tribune has… More ▸
It’s easy to be incensed by Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s loathsome remarks at the United Nations and in media appearances, but several commentators are wondering why there hasn’t been more public outrage by the world community? I’m wondering why all the outcry over the lack of outcry is only coming from the right? Eve Epstein, who… More ▸
Remarkably little has been written in the media leading up to today’s opening of the U.N. General Assembly, where leaders from nations around the globe gather in New York for official speeches and sideline meetings. For once, Israel is not expected to be a major target of vilification; but neither is Iran, which poses the… More ▸
In the New York Sun, B’nai B’rith International’s Sybil Kessler Sanchez, who runs a Jewish NGO office devoted exclusively to U.N. affairs, takes stock of the Jewish state’s progress at the U.N. as a new Israeli ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, assumes her post. Sanchez’s conclusion: Israel’s situation at the United Nations has improved markedly in recent… More ▸
Mexican Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, now a candidate for the post of U.N. high commissioner for human rights in Geneva, is defending his record as president of the U.N. Human Rights Council during 2006-’07. In a May 19 post, The Telegraph reported that U.N. Watch said de Alba “oversaw the massive erosion of what… More ▸
One of the top candidates to be the new U.N. high commissioner for human rights may bring the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva to new lows, warns one pro-Israel watchdog organization. Mexican Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba – who is the front-runner for the post, according to Human Rights Tribune, rarely missed an opportunity… More ▸
Another day, another tongue lashing from Anne Bayefsky. Bayefsky, the director of the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust at Touro College, has become a Jewish gadfly here in Geneva, as speechifying diplomats wrapped the first week of a two-week “preparatory” session for the 2009 World Conference Against Racism. A common theme here is… More ▸
Noel Hidalgo/Creative Commons JTA correspondent Michael J. Jordan visits with the diplomats in Geneva preparing for the 2009 World Conference Against Racism as they seek to widen the definition of anti-Semitism to include Islamophobia – Arabs are Semites, after all – and talk of the importance of focusing on “state racism.” Guess which state? Parsing… More ▸
