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

[Marc Lemire]

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>Subject: ZGram - 7/24/2001 - "Anti-Israel text threatens U.N. meeting"
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> 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]
>
>=====
>
> Source:
>http://asp.washtimes.com/printarticle.asp?action=print&ArticleID=20010723-7
7 660
>315
>
>=====
>
>Thought for the Day:
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>"Without the guilt there is no gelt!"
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>(Letter to the Zundelsite)
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