The forked US tongue on 'Durban 2'

Owen Morgan

I saw the Ha'aretz piece and thought Obama (or someone) had finally seen sense - I should have known better. Brown will be desperate to remain in step with Obama, too, since he is plainly hoping for a public benediction, so we can't hope for any maturity in our own government's response to Durban 2, either before it, or afterwards. Has any President of the US (including promoted VPs) lost the plot as quickly and as totally as this one?

fulcanelli

I fear there is more to come of the sort from this administration.

Obama is an appeaser of the worst liberal kind, and will not be happy until he has appeased all of the middle east and the multitude of racist islamists.If this attitude persists the future does not bode well for Israel.

N

What does this mean:

"The Obama administration would reconsider its position if the document improves in a number of areas including dropping references to any specific country..."

So instead of "we hate Israel" are they just going to say "that country we hate." You are right Melanie the US hasn't done much for the situation. Changing the wording doesn't make a difference if a) everyone knows who you are talking about anyway and b) if hate is still involved.

Michael B

If only Obama's cadenced, pied-piper rhetoric were equivalent to backbone on the foreign policy front, and cash on the domestic front.

Dimitrijevic

The Israelis told the Americans to stay away from the Durban conference. The Americans were of course properly obedient. I'd like to know just what it is the Israelis have on the Yanks that frightens them so. The Canadians as well. The rest of the world isn't nearly so submissive to Israeli demands as are the Americans and the Canadians.

beloved

Dear Melanie,

What an appropriate photograph for US foreign policy.

Who is it supposed to be?

Gary Vineberg

Fascinating how most of you single out America for criticism for not boycotting Durban II -- even when it says it is.

Is Britain boycotting? France? Germany? China? Australia?

Oh, Canada is.

To borrow from Stalin, how many divisions do they have?

Susan

I have to say that I am convinced this is all part & parcel of Obama's political nature: making himself appear to be all things to all people w/a fast shuffle.

itlog95

Dimitrijevic, the Canadian government is not submissive to Israeli demands. Their stand reflects the will of the majority of the Canadian people, who support Israel, despite wishful thinking on your part.

Ronnie

Interesting.

This is all beginning to sound rather anti-American.

Interesting also that many people here genuinely think that Israel is the most important, indeed the only, element in US global foreign policy.

Its not that simple I'm afraid. The previous US government is no more, the new administration has a changed set of priorities and a different way of pursuing them. Yelling from the sidelines, like idiots, at everything the US does now is nothing but yelling from the sidelines like idiots. A number of other people have been doing the same thing for the past 8 years.

Then it was they who were called 'anti-American'.

Mr R

Dimitrijevic, NO government is submissive to Israeli demands. Unfortunately.

Meh

Oh, where to start with this supercilious snideness?

How about here; Peggy Hicks of HRW criticising the HRC for its focus upon Israel.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/11/02/how-put-un-rights-council-back-track

Furthermore, her comment says that the process would be undermined without the ability to comment on any specific country. This is basic comprehension folks; a defence of a process is not the same as a defence of a (feared) outcome.

Dave M

"I'd like to know just what it is the Israelis have on the Yanks that frightens them so."

The best intelligence system in the world more than likely. If the Obama administration really does go ahead at some point and cold shoulders Israel it could turn out to be a costly mistake. I imagine, however, politicians in America know only too well 9/11 had nothing to do with Israel and Israel has never operated in such a manner. Any other possible future 9/11 is likewise not going to be linked to Israel. America has to choose either support those who want to do away with Israel or keep hold of a crucial, productive alliance. The latest I heard is Obama is now trying to do a diplomatic deal with Russia in order to isolate Iran over the nuclear issue. Seeing as its Russia that has helped Iran with nuclear technology, Obama is suggesting removing the missile shield threat to Russia in exchange for a united front against Iran. Actually I think that's a smart move by Obama on this occasion since I never believed Russia poses any threat to Europe. If Russia can be persuaded to stop helping Iran that could halt Iran's nuclear ambitions. Sometimes you have to negotiate rather than bark to make progress.

Amber, Amsterdam

Just a update concerning an earlier blog about the bannishment of Geert Wilders from Great-Brittain. In the polls he is the biggest party in Holland and it's party is still going strong.
What is labour going to do when he becomes PM of the Netherlands ?

Original Tony

Yawn....sigh...no empire in all of Earth's history has detroyed Israel (people of...not land of)and no future one will; the whole world will undermine her, anti-semetism will rise yet again (without people ever really asking why), Iran will attack or be attacked fairly soon, 2/3rds of israel will perish; Russia attacks Israel and Damascus will be nuked.
It's all in the Bible but no-one reads it and less understand it.
It kinda makes everything I read old news and stale...

New Brunswick Barry

Vineberg: Canada may be a relatively small country, in terms of population at least, but it's bigger by every measure than Australia. Moreover, Canadian soldiers are fighting and dying in Afghanistan -- 108 dead so far, versus 25 Germans and 8 Australians -- so we are putting our money, so to speak, where our mouths are. Anyway, how many Germans have ever died fighting for democracy and human rights? Where are Stalin and all his divisions now? Where, indeed, is the Soviet Union? There's still a Pope in Rome, and Canadians, I am proud to say, still have the moral authority that your Chinese and Germans never had or that your Brits now seem to be squandering. Canada also has a lot more Jews than China, Germany or Australia, and believe me, they are a lot safer here than in any of those countries -- probably safer than Jews in Britain, too, by the sound of it.

Augustus

Unlike in Europe thank goodness the vast majority of Americans back a pro-Israeli policy and a fellow democracy.
They are not going to be swayed by totalitarian regimes and anti-Semitic propaganda. No doubt left-wingers in the administration will adhere to these sentiments, considering the disgusting anti-Jewish hatefest that was Durban 1, not to mention the full realization of Muslim terrorism that manifested itself in 9/11 just a few days later. It's true, the US media does show anti-Israel tendencies, but they are more infected by the left-wing moral relativism and perverse self-hatred of western civilization than the general population. However, present-day European anti-Semitism is very much a leftist phenomenon. It derives its ideology from a dangerous left-inspired anti-American culture coupled with an almost ridiculous obsession with multiculturalism. A multiculturalism manifested in a complete lack of identification with Judeo-
Christian values. It is this new ideology which sows so readily the propagation of hatred.

Straydingo

Dimitrijevic, were do people like you come from - seriously.

You believe a nation of approx 7m, of which 25% are Muslims, really has that kid of power - seriously.

Straydingo

This article is off topic but I wanted to share it with you all as I believe the focus on the article to be of interest to those who cant understand why the public is unable to sift between the truth and lies presented in today's MSM:

http://tinyurl.com/b8uprt

Cheers

Gary Vineberg

New Brunswick Barry: Your incoherent rant completely misses my point. Canada's sacrifices in Afghanistan and its principled absence from Durban II are admirable, despite the facts that: Canada has a puny defense budget relative to GDP; its opposition politicians continuously threaten to withdraw from Afghanistan; and since the end of World War II (up until which its foreign policy was largely dictated by the British, with whom it shared a flag), it has become increasingly "neutral" in the United Nations. My point is that the U.S. is being criticized for not blowing up Durban II, while veto-holding powers such as France, Britain, Russia and China are getting a free pass. Why does the U.S. always have to be the heavy?

davidka

Amazing how some Muslims can see what is invisible to perfidious western left

Algerian Berber journalist Azouaou Azeggagh wrote: "The Palestinians, taken hostage in the Gaza Strip, suffer martyrdom while serving as a human shield in a war imposed on them by Hamas' Islamist militias and their allies in Damascus and Tehran. The media are at the source of the clamors of indignation heard from the four corners of the world when faced with the horrors of a war broadcast live… They would do better to turn against the persecutors of the Palestinians' liberty -namely, the Hamas fundamentalists, disciples of Khomeini and bin Laden…

"The method remains simple and terribly effective. First, you must make Israel commit an error, by launching rockets from crowded neighborhoods, schools, or hospitals, so that the return fire will inevitably hit the largest number of civilians possible - preferably women and children. Then, you show the TV [crews] the shredded bodies, and there you go. The condemnations pour in and the world looks at Israel as the barbarian of the 21st century, when it did nothing but defend its right to live - a right openly and unambiguously contested by Islamists of all stripes.

"Nonetheless, Western opinion, which often stops at the emotional level, wants neither to see nor to understand the reasons for the Israeli military reaction. [According to them], all Israel had to do was not fall into the trap of its enemies. What Western opinion forgets is that with such a reaction, it encourages in Gaza what it condemns at home: Islamist terrorism…

"Other tragedies - in Darfur, Kivu, Gambia, the Ivory Coast, Kabylia, Somaliland, Sri Lanka, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, and the Touareg lands ([in] Niger, Mali, Lybia, and Algeria) - are largely minimalized, and do not give rise to mass movements [of sympathizers]. Selective humanism and compassion are the expression of an unspoken racism. The victims of political and military violence are equal in death, whatever their identity.

Frank P

Nice piece Augustus; as always.

Frank P

Straydingo (6.33pm) Thanks for that very wise essay by Gerard Henderson, which gets to the very heart of the methodology of the culture warriors who are still implementing the counter- cultural hegemony desired by those on the Long March.

Film, TV and the MSM in general are all riddled with the rats. From this phenomenon all current politics flow; it is therefore not 'off topic' at all if you pan out a little, because it affects all geopolitical activity. Unfortunately the masses that now form the electorates of the West are already in the bag through ignorance, laziness or both. Nothing will serve to stem the counter-culture revolution until the full horrors start to bite. Recent events could mark the beginning of that, as the world's political 'leaders' begin to visibly panic over the sudden exposure of gigantic banking and fiscal fraud, involving international governmental complicity that is now unfolding, scam by scam. It's difficult to find a precedent in history for this scale chicanery, so it's impossible to augur how it will develop. One thing is certain - there will be blood. When, whose and how much is anybody's guess. It would be interesting to be present at top military and policing briefings these days regarding plans for incipient civil commotion.

Can any of you people in the loop tell me how long can the government print money to pay welfare to the workers who are thrown out of work by the protracted slump? If the government continues to use a printing press to produce banknotes for the populace to spend on goods and services, what happens then? As a layman, I would like to know when and how the wheel comes off the bandwagon that we're all riding on. Have we indeed already lost all the wheels - and the driver - and just careering downhill on the impetus of gravity? Somebody complete this scenario for me, because I simply can't envisage the length or surface of the slide, or what is at the end of it. Moreover, from what I can discern from the wild-eyed utterances of all those with hands on the levers of all areas of government, finance and commerce, nor can anyone else. It's no good asking the editorial staff of this magazine; they're all over the shop. There are a few wise monkeys from the commentariat here who seem to have a handle on the shortcomings of the politicians. Perhaps one of them can give us a five- hundred-word vision of 'que sera?' And a one word answer - 'sera!' - won't win the banana.

Owen Morgan

Ronnie, there is nothing anti-American about thinking that the new President is at least one clue short of a pair.

Ronnie

Owen Morgan, I agree with you. However, that's what people said when they dared criticise the Republican administration and were derided as anti-American for doing so.

There is more than one vision of what America is and what it stands for but it seems that you can only be 'American' when your party is in government. Certainly in the eyes of GOP supporters.

Helen

Do me a favour, Ronnie.

The anti-Americanism went well beyond Bush and his administration. I recently watched a 'comedian' called Russell Howard on Live At The Apollo tell a 'joke' to the effect that Americans were prepared to give up being racist just to avoid McCain/Palin.

This is the attitude of Britain's bien pensant: you can throw wicked smears not just at politicians but at the population of a whole country. That is the anti-Americanism we were referring to, and which, as Russell Howard demonstrates, is still alive and well.

That has noting to do with questioning why the Holy One thinks there is something sane about taking lessons in human rights from the governments of Libya, Cuba and Iran.

Derek BLADES

What has actually happened here? The Obama administration would like to reconnect with the world by taking part in Durban 2 but they have concluded that the agenda is unsuitable and have said they will not take part unless changes are made. That is exactly what diplomacy is about - negotiation and compromise.
Poor old Melanie! Having lambasted Obama for agreeing to participate in Durban - incorrectly as it turns out - she is now trying to wipe the egg off her face by attacking what is a perfectly normal process of diplomatic negotiation.

Vision Aforethought

Off topic, but I don't know where else to post it.

Re this...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-museum-accused-over-links-to-israel-1635887.html

...who ownes The Independent?

Their jounalists appear to have names that would by default promote the sort of lies or bias included in the above story about the Science Museum.

Pat Viliors

Original Tony, spot on. If anyone took the time to read their bible, the way things are going were all prophesied thousands of years ago. Of course it's cool to ridicule God these days, but then that's the ultimate idolatry: man's puts his 'wisdom' above the received word of God. Now if the bible predicted that things would come to a head over Brazil or Japan, or even Russia or America, people could quite rightly scoff at it. But no, it's Israel. And like it or not, everything prophesied in the bible (and I'm talking about the Judao/ Christian bible here) has come to pass or is shaping up to come to pass. Do yourselves a favour humanoids: read it and realise that were are NOT the supreme beings we think we are - not even Obama!

Penny

Dear Davidka - thank you for the interesting article.

As an aside, I was watching the late, late news in the early hours of this morning and heard an American analyst from one of the Universities (I forget which!) comment on Brown's visit to the USA.

He said that although there is a special relationship between the UK and USA, Obama doesn't necessarily see it as 'the' special relationship anymore and intends to focus more on the Middle and Far East.

Dixon

"Frank P"..."...the masses..."

Frank, Im afraid you sound just like one of the people you are justifiably angry about.

There are no "masses" in the West. Quite the contrary, our problem is partly one of the total atomisation of society into a million unrelated, mutually alien fragments. "Divide and rule" is the way the dominant oligarchy operates. "Masses" would really put the wind up their kilts!

As Winston Smith ( the real one, not the poster here ) put it: "Our only hope is with the proles". For "proles" we can now substitute folks who dont give a monkeys ( about "racism", "saving the planet", Israel, who the prime minister is at the moment ). These are people who are extremely resistent to fashionable thinking as it is pumped out by the media and our "intelligentsia". Whilst middle class and professional people have been cowed into silence ( except where they can anonymously post, on forums and blogs ) these neo-proles know that nothing they ever say is listened to by "the powers that be" and so feel no hesitation about continuing to say it. Hence, there is a continually broiling, stewing, brewing "mass" of discontent in this country that at present we do not see and the media strive not to reveal. Sooner or later, somethings gotta give! When it does, it will be what you refer to as "the masses" ( the bulk of the indiginous population ) that will be the reason, not a tiny fringe of concerned "sophisticated" dissidents.

It will be ugly. But long overdue.

Sam Armstrong

Amber, Amsterdam
March 2nd, 2009 1:46pm

Amber, by the time Wilders becomes PM of NL, we will have David Cameron in office, of the British Conservatives.

The Labour government that banned Wilders is extremely unpopular and on their way out.

The British are unhappy about the handling of this, so don't pay too much attention to Dutch media or Mr. Wilders himself - the truth is that most British were outraged by that whole episode.

Helen

Dixon, there's some truth in this: "Whilst middle class and professional people have been cowed into silence ( except where they can anonymously post, on forums and blogs )" but if you look at people like Pat Condell you'll see there are people prepared to say what they think but the media deliberately shuns them.

I see more of Pat Condell via American media than I ever do via British media outlets.

Frank P

Dixon

We seem to agree on all but a word (what to call the hordes of idiots who keep voting for Leftist administrations); but I still need an answer to the question: what happens when a government that has bankrupted its own country continues to print money without the resources to ultimately fulfil the 'promise to pay' on my banknotes (the couple I have left) and expects its yet-to-be-born citizens to divvy up for today's villainy in a couple or three decades from now? How FFS?

Even the stricken Zimbabwe has mineral resources to fall back on as a last resort when the old tyrant eventually pops his clogs.

With the City of London flattened more comprehensively now than when Hitler's Luftwaffe did a job on it (there was at that time still some honour, spirit and spunk left among the rubble), what is left now? Londonistan is a miserable mess;
a multi-culti one to boot.

Cricket perhaps? Well not really, as it is becoming a liability after the fall of Standfordism and anyway the various violent wackos of Asia have now decided that it's a target for terrorism.

Agriculture? Pshaw! Olde England is now a feckin' theme park: the Royal Family merely grace and favour residents of the National Trust properties - and (rather like Adam Nicholson and Sarah Raven at Sissinghurst) despised by the cooks and cleaners and the bureaucracy that marshals the punters to gawp at the gardens and he relics of a long lost empire.

Coal? Well now that we know it can be 'clean coal' perhaps we could always recall Scargill from Care in the Community and make him Prime Minister, I suppose. Is he still alive btw? Not a peep from him recently. Best wait until Margaret has departed before we consider that; she has had enough to contend with recently: incipient Alzheimer’s; errant offspring; piss poor theatrical portrayals in cod versions of her last days in Downing Street; a mocumentary by that slug Portillo with its cast of bastard has-beens ... the resurrection of Mad Arthur would be cruel and unusual punishment to impose upon the remainder of her dotage.

I await with interest to learn what level of fantasy our travelling and insane Premier will achieve on the podium in Washington shortly, as he fulfils his role of 'First European Leader' to stand beside the New Messiah and Saviour of the New World Order since the January 2009 Manifestation. Obama Akbar! Brown sprinkled in Obamadust will still be slimy, festering brown with a streak of yellow I fear.

Pythonesque? Nah, it is far more bizarre (and sinister) than any of that tomfoolery. This is for real; the utter destruction of a Nation that achieved at its height more than any other in history. Devastating! And I repeat, I'm not off topic; it's the root of the pandemic malady, the various symptoms of which Melanie describes so vividly in her articles. Treachery, villainy sheer stupidity - and the yellow stuff of cowardice is the catalyst for this poisonous, historical concatenation.

Straydingo

Frank P,

As it happens I have another article that may help with your economics question:

http://tinyurl.com/co8knb

Long read - but very thought provoking.

Cheers

Straydingo

Dixon

Helen
March 3rd, 2009 4:11pm
Dixon, there's some truth in this: "Whilst middle class and professional people have been cowed into silence ( except where they can anonymously post, on forums and blogs )" but if you look at people like Pat Condell you'll see there are people prepared to say what they think but the media deliberately shuns them. "

Thats what I mean...only people who are shunned by the media anyway are willing to risk saying what they think.

I had never heard of Pat Condell until he was being lauded accross the water at Little GreenFootballs. The British media has done ca real fine job of censorship in his case. Its as though noone in the USSR had ever heard of Solzehnitsin ( or however its spelled ).

All the same, outspoken he may be, Pat Condell is ALSO an immigration lover who calls those who dont agree with that "racist".

Frank P...bankrupt is the thing. Nowhere is there for the money to come from. Our wise leaders are right now desperately trying to figure out how they are going to manage to wind down and disband the entire benefits system, the NHS and most government offices without being swept away in the tide of reaction. Or maybe they are merely keeping shum whilst each minister privately tries to figure out how to save their own arses!

well, theyve now set up the "security" apparatus ( or Securitate ) with which to suppress the beginnings of any dissent. The last brick in the wall will be the ID card.

beloved

Ronnie, the pro-Americans are critical of O, at least here in America.

Derek BLADES

Pat Viliors and Original Tony apparently believe that the Bible predicts virtually everything. That must make life very boring for you both since you know what is about to happen in the World even before it does!

Just one question, the bible deals only with the Middle East. This is because the priests who wrote it only knew about that part of the world. Does the Bible have anything useful to say about North Korea, Myanmar or Iran? Or, indeed about any countries that did not exist as recognisable states at the time the priests were putting the bible together?

Kiwi

Frank P. "what happens when a government that has bankrupted its own country continues to print money..?"
Not only financially bankrupt, there's more, morally and spiritually bankrupt as well!

stanley Jerusalem

Derek BLADES - "Does the Bible have anything useful to say about North Korea, Myanmar or Iran?"

Why?

Ronnie

Oh Helen!

If anyone criticises the government of a country, the governing party's supporters call them anti whatever country it happens to be.

Its normal but that doesn't make it true. Just absurd when the more partisan among us cling to it.