ZGram - 7/24/2001 - "Anti-Israel text threatens U.N. meeting"

[Ingrid Rimland]

 Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

 ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

 July 24, 2001

 Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Nothing seems to go well for the Israelis any more.  Now there are serious
cracks at the U.N. level where they dominated for so long so ruthlessly -
and an upcoming U.N, conference, anticipated with foreboding by those who
fear the truth, is bound to add laurels to revisionism.

Watch how it flickers on the horizon:

[START]

  Anti-Israel text threatens U.N. meeting | Betsy Pisik

 THE WASHINGTON TIMES | July 23, 2001

      NEW YORK -- An Arab-sponsored text for an upcoming U.N. conference
condemns Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as a "crime against
humanity." It threatens to derail the entire conference.

      The statement, suggesting a moral equivalency between the settlements
and the Holocaust, is inserted in the weighty document that more than 180
nations will debate at the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, which
begins late next month in Durban, South Africa.

      To the United States and Israel, it smacks of earlier U.N.
resolutions equating Zionism and racism, which was part of official U.N.
dogma from 1975 until its repeal in 1991.

      Insertion of the language "has turned the conference against racism
into a racist conference against Israel," said Israeli Deputy Foreign
Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior in an interview with The Washington Times.

      "There is an attempt from the Arab countries to make this a major
step in the total delegitimization of Israel, Zionism and the Jewish
faith," said Rabbi Melchior after meetings with the White House, State
Department and lawmakers.

      According to diplomats who have seen the most recent draft text for
Durban, negotiated earlier this month in Geneva, Israeli settlements in
Palestinian areas are labeled as a "foreign occupation" and a "crime
against humanity." They are also compared to the apartheid policies of
South Africa's past.

      The United States has begun pressuring its allies through diplomatic
channels to remove the language at a preconference meeting starting next
week in Geneva.

      But U.S. officials declined to say how many of their traditional
allies will go along. "It's not as simplistic as Zionism equals racism,"
said a U.S. official. "That's old-speak, they don't use that any longer.

      "This is harsh language about Israel and Israeli policies," added the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said that if the
proponents of the language persist, "the world conference itself could be
badly destabilized."

      The official also stressed that the United Nations itself should not
be blamed for the language, which is sponsored by a group of Arab nations
who are using the U.N. conference to score political points. Several U.N.
officials have denounced the paragraphs.

       The Europeans are also uneasy about the language, saying the Durban
conference is not the place for country-specific condemnations.

      "The sorts of proposals we are seeing for language at Durban, for
example equating Zionism with racism, would be completely unacceptable even
if we were to deal with country-specific issues," said a European diplomat.
"Durban is an opportunity to tackle racial issues constructively. This type
of inflammatory language goes in exactly the opposite direction."

      However, the 15-nation European Union bloc has been willing to
condemn human rights violations and Israeli policies in the region, often
going further than Washington would like.

      The European diplomat said this week that the common E.U. position
was to condemn racism, rather than its supposed practitioners. But some
American officials are concerned that Europe, still trying to find a role
in the Middle East, is proceeding too cautiously.

      The Arab League says its members are increasingly concerned about the
daily violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

      "Zionism is a racist theory that the Arab League will support any
condemnation of," said Ali Abbas, the league's deputy U.N. ambassador in
New York. He said that Arab states are willing to be flexible on some of
the text, "but not on the problem of settlements."

      U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson have also opposed an explicit condemnation of Israel
at the conference.

      Mrs. Robinson, visiting Washington late last month, appealed to
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to attend the conference, which is
threatening to turn into a low-level gathering instead of the high-profile
event originally envisioned.

      "I've made it very clear that are opposed to and want to do
everything I can to stop any question of a theme of Zionism as racism that
was something that was dealt with in the past," Mrs. Robinson said in a
recent interview.

      "It will be totally inappropriate to reopen something that would be
both hurtful and divisive and prevent the Durban conference from making any
kind of progress."

      South Africa's ambassador to Egypt, Frank Mdlalose, warned an Arab
meeting in Cairo last week that language in the present version of the text
could derail the Durban conference.

      South Africa, as the host of the conference and chair of the
Non-Aligned Movement, is under enormous international pressure to build
consensus between various blocs.

      The anti-Israeli language is the latest in a number of seemingly
intractable obstacles to the conference, which is slated for Aug. 30 to
Sept. 7.

      Washington has indicated that unless specific language is deleted it
will consider boycotting the conference or at least sending a delegation of
very low rank. But the Israelis said they will be there one way or another.

      "You say it is only words, but we have a lot of respect for
language," Rabbi Melchior said. "We only exist for a word from God. We've
seen what words create. Auschwitz began with words, same as all forms of
racism. It all began with hatred and incitement and developed into physical
attacks."

[END]

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 Source:
http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20010723-77 660
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Thought for the Day:

"Without the guilt there is no gelt!"

(Letter to the Zundelsite)