The headline on the Republican Jewish Coalition’s press release today calls on President Obama to stop the "equivocating and flip-flopping" on the Durban II conference, and the release expresses concern that the president might "renege" on his promised boycott of the conference. But the Obama administration hasn’t actually flip-flopped on its position regarding the conference — and always left open a possibility that it might attend the gathering next week in Geneva.
Here’s the opening portion of the RJC’s release:
RJC Calls for "Clear, Principled, and Final" Durban 2 Position
Equivocating and Flip-Flopping Must StopWashington, D.C. (April 14, 2009) The Republican Jewish Coalition today called on President Obama to end the guessing game about whether the administration will follow through on its pledge not to participate in the United Nations’ discredited World Conference Against Racism (Durban 2) next week in Geneva.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday: "Senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York are leaning in favor of participating" in Durban 2. Yesterday, the State Department issued a statement that applauded revisions that have apparently been made in the working group draft statement upon which the conference will be based. The statement concluded by expressing the hope "that the United States can re-engage the conference process with the hope of arriving at a conference document that we can support." The Jerusalem Post reported that "the wrangling over the contents of the draft outcome document for the Durban review could continue throughout the week, leaving the US presence up in the air until right before the conference begins."
This is very disturbing news for American Jews and others who support Israel, since it raises the prospect that the Obama administration will renege on its previous commitment to boycott this conference.
The Haaretz article that the RJC points to, though, did not directly quote any U.S. officials, but attributed its information to unnamed "dipomatic sources. And the State Department statement doesn’t indicate any change in position, but is merely reporting what progress has been made on meeting the conditions that it initially laid out for participating in the conference — after pulling out of pre-Durban II meetings in late February.
Here’s a portion of the Feb. 27 statement from the State Department:
Sadly, however, the document being negotiated has gone from bad to worse, and the current text of the draft outcome document is not salvageable. As a result, the United States will not engage in further negotiations on this text, nor will we participate in a conference based on this text. A conference based on this text would be a missed opportunity to speak clearly about the persistent problem of racism.
The United States remains open to a positive result in Geneva based on a document that takes a constructive approach to tackling the challenges of racism and discrimination. The U.S. believes any viable text for the Review Conference must be shortened and not reaffirm in toto the flawed 2001 Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA). It must not single out any one country or conflict, nor embrace the troubling concept of “defamation of religion.” The U.S. also believes an acceptable document should not go further than the DDPA on the issue of reparations for slavery.
We will observe developments in Geneva and in capitals to see if such an outcome emerges. We would be prepared to re-engage if a document that meets these criteria becomes the basis for deliberations.
And here’s Monday’s statement:
The United States welcomes the recent progress that has been made through the efforts of many delegations, governments and officials in the formulation of the draft outcome document for the Durban Review Conference on April 20. As the United States noted on February 27, the previous draft text contained objectionable language in several areas. Since then, substantial improvements have been made, including shortening the document, removing all language that singled out any one country or conflict, and removing language that embraced the concept of "defamation of religion" and that demanded reparations for slavery. We commend those who have worked to effect these changes.
There remain, however, elements of the current draft text that continue to pose significant concerns. The U.S. believes any viable text for the Review Conference must be shortened and not reaffirm "in toto" the flawed 2001 Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA). In addition, while references to "defamation of religion" have been removed from the current draft text, we cannot support restrictions on freedom of expression that could result from some of the document’s language related to "incitement" to religious hatred — a concept that the United States believes should be narrow and clearly defined and made consistent with human rights obligations ensuring freedom of expression.
We appreciate that many delegations continue to work hard in good will to improve the current text. We hope that these remaining concerns will be addressed, so that the United States can re-engage the conference process with the hope of arriving at a Conference document that we can support.
The State Department’s message is presented more optimistically, but content-wise its objections aren’t much different from the reactions of Jewish leaders to the conference’s text — it’s improved, but not nearly enough.
The RJC plea to end the "guessing game" does have some resonance — we’re less than six days from the beginning of the conference and there’s still no official yes or no. Don’t plane reservations and hotel rooms need to be booked if U.S. officials are going to attend?
UPDATE: Obama administration officials held a conference call for Jewish leaders on Tuesday to reconfirm that the U.S. is unlikely to participate in the Durban II conference.
Participants on the call said that administration officials reaffirmed a Monday State Department statement that while they believe there have been improvements in the conference’s draft document, they were insufficient to allow the U.S. to take part. Specifically, the statement noted that the document must not reaffirm the 2001 Durban conference’s draft document — which, by mentioning the "plight of the Palestinian people" places Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the context of race — and that the U.S. cannot support restrictions on freedom of expression that could result from the document’s language related to "incitement" to religious hatred. The statement did commend the elimination of the language singling out Israel and passages calling for slavery reparations and supporting the concept of "defamation of religion." The statement also did not rule out U.S. attendance at the parley if those conditions were met before the conference’s commencement on Monday.
According to one participant on the call, administration officials said the upbeat tone of the State Department release — which expressed hope that U.S. concerns would be addressed — was to provide encouragement to those working to make the document better, and not meant to imply that the administration was any closer to participation.
The call comes after anonymously sourced articles in the Israeli press reported that the U.S. was considering particpating in the conference.
The conference on racism, scheduled for April 20-24 in Geneva, is a follow-up to the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa. The U.S. pulled out of that gathering after it turned into a anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate fest.
The complete RJC press release is after the jump.
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RJC Calls for "Clear, Principled, and Final" Durban 2 Position
Equivocating and Flip-Flopping Must StopWashington, D.C. (April 14, 2009) The Republican Jewish Coalition today called on President Obama to end the guessing game about whether the administration will follow through on its pledge not to participate in the United Nations’ discredited World Conference Against Racism (Durban 2) next week in Geneva.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday: "Senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York are leaning in favor of participating" in Durban 2. Yesterday, the State Department issued a statement that applauded revisions that have apparently been made in the working group draft statement upon which the conference will be based. The statement concluded by expressing the hope "that the United States can re-engage the conference process with the hope of arriving at a conference document that we can support." [2] The Jerusalem Post reported that "the wrangling over the contents of the draft outcome document for the Durban review could continue throughout the week, leaving the US presence up in the air until right before the conference begins." [3]
This is very disturbing news for American Jews and others who support Israel, since it raises the prospect that the Obama administration will renege on its previous commitment to boycott this conference. Durban II is a follow-up to the original Durban conference of 2001, and is expected to be a venue for the same kind of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-Western tirades that led President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to withdraw the U.S. from the first conference.
Yesterday, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) wrote to Secretary of State Clinton to warn that "the latest working group draft statement is still fundamentally unacceptable. The very first clause reaffirms the hate-filled declarations of the 2001 Durban Conference, which singled out only one country in the world for condemnation – Israel." The bipartisan pair urged Clinton to "reaffirm" the Obama administration’s "pledge not to attend the hate-filled Durban conference." [4] The RJC strongly agrees with this bipartisan congressional sentiment.
Concerns that the 2009 conference would devolve into an anti-Israel gathering have been further fueled by the news that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamadinejad will join the proceedings. Ahmadinejad’s long history of Holocaust denial and genocidal threats against Israel make his plans an ominous signal as to the real trend in Geneva.
The latest administration signals leave an impression of a new diplomatic team determined to turn what could have been an opportunity for principled leadership into a fiasco that promotes disarray within the UN’s democratic bloc.
We urge President Obama to act quickly and unambiguously: End this guessing game and affirm the pledge he made to be resolute in opposition to anti-Semitism in the international arena by issuing a clear, principled, and final statement that the United States will not participate in this dangerous and discredited conference.
[1] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1078011.html
[2] http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/04/121654.htm
[3] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239628559175&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[4] http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/04/13/1004400/dont-reconsider-durban
