Durban 3 – Kick This Horror Show Rerun Out Of New York

The United Nations General Assembly stayed in session until 4 in the morning to vote 104 to 22, with 33 abstaining, to hold a "Durban 3 " World Conference Against Racism summit in New York, on September 21, 2011. Given the rampantly anti-Western and anti-Semitic record of the first two Durban racism conferences, holding this one in New York ten days following the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks would constitute a disgraceful insult to our country.

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The United States voted against the Durban 3 General Assembly resolution. However, such passive opposition is insufficient. Our delegation failed to join Canada in declaring that we intend to boycott Durban 3. In fact, it's time to kick this radical Islamic-dominated hatefest out of New York altogether. At the very least, the Obama administration should listen to a bipartisan coalition of 18 U.S. Senators, led by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat -New York), who urged United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice to refrain from participating in the United Nation’s Durban III summit next September. As the Senators pointed out in their letter to Ambassador Rice, the 2009 UN Durban Review Conference Against Racism (Durban 2) had proven to be a repeat of the 2001 controversial Durban 1 summit as extreme anti-Semitic voices took over Durban II. The United States refused to participate in Durban 2 and withdrew from participating in Durban 1. The Senators wrote to Ambassador Rice that the U.S. position on Durban 3 should be no different:

It is important that the United States send a strong signal that another anti-Semitic and anti-American Durban Conference particularly held so close to the tenth anniversary and location of the worst terrorist attack in American history is unacceptable. We can send this signal by making clear now that the United States will not participate in this gathering. Of course, we would welcome the United States’ eventual return to the conference if it were to become a legitimate forum for combating discrimination – but that is a development that seems highly improbable to us.

Iran had led the planning for the United Nations’ 2001 Durban 1 Conference, held in Durban South Africa. Durban 1, which provided a platform for pro-terrorist, and anti-Semitic rhetoric that included such speakers as Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro, ended just three days before 9/11. Iran also headed up preparations for the equally biased follow-up Durban 2 Review Conference in 2009, which was held at the United Nations' Geneva headquarters. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust denier, opened the conference with a vicious attack on Israel, which he called the most racist country in the world. Several delegates, mostly from the European Union, walked out during his speech. Most delegates, however, not only remained for the speech but applauded at its conclusion. Fortunately, the United States, along with Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Poland, had boycotted the whole conference, rightly sensing in advance that something like this would happen. Since Ahmadinejad makes an annual pilgrimage to New York every September for the opening of each General Assembly session, another of his vintage anti-American, anti-Semitic attacks is inevitable. Libya, which is a member of the UN Human Rights Council that is planning Durban 3, indicated during a planning session that the event would be used to draw attention yet again to the alleged escalation of Islamophobia. There will surely be more attacks on Israel as Durban 3 can be expected to reconfirm the Palestinian victimhood narrative of the earlier summit. We know how this horror show is going to turn out. As United Nations Watch put it:

Based on past experience, we fear that the banner of human rights and anti-racism will be hijacked by Iranian President Ahmadinejad and other dictators to deflect attention from their crimes, and to incite anti-Western and anti-Semitic hatred.

It's time for the Obama administration to take a firm stand and tell the cast of haters behind Durban 3 to take their show to Iran or Libya where it belongs. If the General Assembly insists on holding the conference at the UN's New York headquarters, not a dollar of American taxpayers' money should be used to pay for it. The U.S. should subtract from its funding towards the UN budget for next year an amount in proportion to what would be our share of the UN’s expenditures on the planning and running of Durban 3. Most importantly, if Durban 3 proceeds as planned at the UN's New York headquarters, President Obama must stay away from the United Nations next September in protest. Otherwise, he will simply add to his record of moral cowardice. Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam.