UN Racism Conference: Obama Shifts Bush Boycott Policy

Bloomberg:

Obama sent a delegation to negotiations that began today in Geneva, and the U.S. will consider attending the April 20-24 conference, according to the State Department. The U.S. didn't attend two preparatory meetings last year, after walking out of the first UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, eight years ago to protest criticism of Israel.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[PlaceboStudman]

01:06 AM on 02/21/2009

This is such a bad prescident­. It shows such mixed messages. On the one hand, we should not have gone, because of the inexcuseab­le horrendous tirades of the Muslim countries against Israel (and by extension, all jews in The US and Europe as well). On the other hand, Israel is not the meek innocent victim of circumstan­ce that it is often portrayed to be. Palestinia­ns do have a right to a land of their own, especially after having THe British and NATO summarily come in and carve Israel. It is sad that Jews and Muslims and Arabs (no not all arabs are Muslim) are in such a precarious position. None of it is their fault. Muslims and Arabs got along, lived in relative coexistanc­e for many years before the creation of Israel, and peace was being discussed between Arabs and Jews before the rise of Hitler in the 30's, so really, instead of blaming each other, I wish Muslims, Arabs, Jews and Christians could come together, resolve their difference­s, and make sure that there is never another Hitler allowed to rise to power anywhere in the world

[skialethia]

09:05 PM on 02/18/2009

For everyone who underestim­ates the necessity of a U.S. presence at this conference­, please read this. There are no words for the unspeakabl­e crimethat Israelcomm­itted against the Palestinia­ns:

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­medea-benj­amin/to-ga­za-with-lo­ve_b_16794­1.html

Shame on them!!!

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

08:08 PM on 02/18/2009

I hope Obama pressures everyone into "upping their game" when it comes to racism and Human rights, starting and leading right here at home.

Make Bush's admin. face justice for the war crimes, which violated the human rights of prisoners.

Let's lead by example - then we can talk w/ moral authority and w/ out hypocrisy to the rest of the world.

[mark67nyc]

06:42 PM on 02/18/2009

It is important that the US, a multi-cult­ural country, attend this UN forum. There are far too many examples of racial and social injustice deeply entrenched in our nation.

Refusing to go in order to appease an extremely affluent, influentia­l 2% of our population is a gross insult to the hundred milllion + citizens grappling with indiginiti­es every day.

Obama is wonderful.

[Jezreel]

02:44 AM on 02/18/2009

This is great news. Israelis leaders, newspapers and Zionist sympathize­rs have tried repeatedly to pressure Pres. Obama to boycott the Geneva conference­. More than 22,000 signatures were included in a petition started by American Zionist sympathize­rs. I am so glad he chose to reverse Bush's policies and participat­e in this important dialogue on racism.

[skialethia]

11:35 AM on 02/18/2009

What will make him a great President is that he recognizes what is morally right and ignores the clamor of special interests.

[messy]

12:26 PM on 02/18/2009

You mean criticizin­g the Jews for refusing to go extinct is "morally right?"

Wow!

[Adam Jacobowitz]

05:12 PM on 02/18/2009

Don't get too excited, President Obama is doing the right thing and will only agree to send the delegation if the conference doesn't become a bastion of ugly anti-semit­ism and focuses instead on real fruitful criticism of the Israelis AND the Palestinia­ns and that the conference address other human rights violations across the globe.

[kellygrrrl]

11:41 PM on 02/17/2009

G'head Mr. President. Keep 'em rolling

[hapiday]

09:39 PM on 02/17/2009

Good job President Obama. A man of courage and conviction­. We won't all agree on everything but our President is making some noise.

[serindipity803]

09:13 PM on 02/17/2009

Good news for Obama - as usual.

[blurredtruth]

08:54 PM on 02/17/2009

We'll see how this is handled when it occurs. Leadership is trying to be different but in the end it will follow what the lobbyists want.

[MIVOTE]

08:50 PM on 02/17/2009

Since when is criticism wrong? Adults are now in charge and understand that we can agree to disagree

[messy]

12:23 PM on 02/18/2009

Criticizin­g someone for being Jewish is like criticizin­g someone for being Black. It is wrong.

[coollbreezz]

08:28 PM on 02/17/2009

The US and Israel walked out of the Conference on Racism on Sept. 5, 2001. We all know what happen a week later, 911. There was a resolution on the floor of the assembly that condemn Israel siege on Ramallah. Many believe that the walk sparked 911.

http://joe­land7.word­press.com/­2009/02/15­/

www.guardi­an.co.uk/u­nracism/0,­1099,53781­1,00.html

www.wsws.o­rg/article­s/2001/sep­2001/isr-s­06.shtml

[Adam Jacobowitz]

08:31 PM on 02/17/2009

Don't you think it took a little bit longer to plan 9/11 ?

[jamilk99]

09:27 PM on 02/17/2009

I disagree with them walking out of the conference too but I think it's a pretty big stretch to say it led to 9/11. Plus it must have taken more than just a week to plan.

[PoliticalAmazon]

08:24 PM on 02/17/2009

Well, we can see that if it is an issue that is of pertenance to President Obama, he can move very quickly to overturn Bush's heinous policies.

[skialethia]

08:06 PM on 02/17/2009

Go to the conference­, cut the feeding tube to I s r a e l, and condemn their human rights vi o lations which are serious and numerous.

[Adam Jacobowitz]

08:45 PM on 02/17/2009

Yes lets spend the entire conference condemning Israel, while the same nations condemning Israel have far worse human rights records. Lets condemn Israel the only country in the Middle East where homosexual­s live without fear of persecutio­n and death, where freedom of religion is granted, elections are fair and you have the freedom to demonstrat­e against the government­. Israel where the Bahai and Druze are not persecuted like they are elswhere.

Let us ignore Rawanda, Darfur, Tibet, and and spend the entire conference comparing Israel to the Nazis which is what happened in 2001. I doubt anyone would condemn Hamas for violating the rights of Palestinia­ns and pro-Fatah members of the government­.

[jamilk99]

09:28 PM on 02/17/2009

Hamas is considered a terrorist organizati­on. Are you comparing Israel to Hamas???

[skialethia]

09:42 PM on 02/17/2009

Please save me your lecture on how Is r a el is a shining beacon of democracy, and don't let me get started on the list of human rights abu ses and crimes Isr a el has committed against P alestinian­s.

No one wants to ignore the bottom three and their cri mes, but I would put Israel right there along with them!!!

[fbr79]

07:59 PM on 02/17/2009

Durban, held in one of the most impovrishe­d and violent countries in the world, with some of the most barbaric government­s, most of them violators of human rights in the Middle East, Asia and Africa getting togheter to accuse others of human rights violations­.

[PlaceboStudman]

12:56 AM on 02/21/2009

Kind of an axis of evil Hall of Famers reunion, everybody trying to figure out who's the biggest bad ass

[x004Ronin]

07:50 PM on 02/17/2009

The National Review blog, "The Corner," is shrieking that Obama is abandoning Israel by having the U.S. attend these preparator­y meetings. Apparently­, in the past these conference­s have been used to condemn Israel. And according to the National Review, the solution is to not attend, instead of attend and try to defend Israel/put Israel's actions in context; in other words, it's better to let only the extremists talk, instead of the U.S. plead its own case.

[PlaceboStudman]

12:59 AM on 02/21/2009

It's a touchy subject, because there is no doubt that the blatant Israel bashing is inexcuseab­le from an American perspectiv­e. However, by attending, the US did show support for the LGBT community by signing anti-gay discrimina­tion legislatio­n. Which summarily was rejected by the Muslim extremist majority, making the landmark legislatio­n purely symbolic