The following is excerpted from a statement by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, read Monday at the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, by Ambassador Mordecai Yedid, the head of the Israeli delegation.
On a cool and drizzly night in this Indian Ocean port city, a vast white tent standing in the middle of a cricket field seemed to fit in with the circus atmosphere of the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, one Jewish observer said.
This was no regular circus that had come to town, however, but a viciously anti-Israel, anti-Jewish circus that had carried on all week and was about to reach its apex.
It got so bad on Monday, just halfway through the official governmental conference that began Aug. 31 and ends Sept. 7, that the United States and Israel recalled their delegations.
The U.S. delegation said it would not continue working in such a \”racist,\” anti-Semitic atmosphere.
On the news it\’s easy to find sickening evidence of the terrorist war being waged against Israel; harder to find, but no less real, are other insidious assaults that are growing in number and venom. This week, the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, which convened in South Africa, was transformed into a forum for vicious anti-Israel accusations. And in Israel itself, the Temple Mount is the focus of a relentless archaeological attack designed to rewrite history.
Jewish leaders are trying to spin a hopeful story about the fight to prevent the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance from turning into an Israel bash-a-thon.
My wife Susan and I moved to Israel in 1983, a time when, for all intents and purposes, it was considered a pariah nation. In fact, not long before we arrived, the United Nations had declared Zionism to be a form of racism.
Critics of the United Nations have been handed a big load of new ammunition as the international body careens toward a high-profile conference that could be the biggest Israel bash-a-thon ever.
Buford O. Furrow Jr.\’s turn in the spotlight ended this week with a whimper, not a bang.
Alexander James Curtis thought he was one of the smartest racists around, smarter than the police and the federal government.
Zionism. Remember that term? We don\’t hear it too often anymore. Many Jews seem uncomfortable with the term Zionism, saying it\’s \”too strong\” or it \”breeds nationalism.\” Some of Israel\’s leading historians have gone as far as declaring this current period in Israel\’s history as the \”post-Zionist era\” – whatever that means. The virtual silencing of the word Zionism in our educational, religious or political vocabularies make the days when we enthusiastically took to the streets to fervently protest the United Nation\’s infamous \”Zionism is Racism\” resolution seem like ancient history.
In 1990, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox met and fell in love with a black man, a bass player who performed in a blues band with one of her friends.
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