Obama Team Tells Jewish Leaders: UN Durban Text Crosses "Red Line"

[cali]

Source: Huffington Post


April 14, 2009 at 08:23 PM

In a private conference call with Jewish leaders on Tuesday, the Obama White House reaffirmed that it has not decided to formally reengage negotiations over the charter of the United Nations' World Conference on Racism, citing lingering disputes over the review document's language.

On the call, which the Huffington Post managed to listen in on, National Security Council aide Samantha Power stressed that while progress had been made on the text of the Durban II document, not enough had been done to get the United States to the table.

The current working text, she said, "met two of our four red lines frontally, in the sense that it went no further than reparations and it did drop all references to Israel and all anti-Semitic language. But it continued to reaffirm, in toto, Durban I. And while it did drop specific references to defamation, it continues to include very problematic language on incitement... that are out of line with core U.S. commitments to free speech. So that's where we have been for a couple weeks, with a text that is dramatically improved... also ratifies the U.S. decision to walk away in the sense that it did seem to spur the other delegations to go back to the drawing board... We have not reengaged in any kind of formal way with this process. Our red lines remain our red lines... In order for us to participate in the negotiations, to sit behind the placard, to be involved in a frontal way, much more would need to be done. And all four of our red lines will need to be met."

Power, who serves as director for multilateral affairs for the NSC, concluded: "We will make our decision up closer to the date of the conference, we want to show good faith to our allies and the people who are working hard to improve the text... But we are also not interested in being involved or associated with fool's errands."


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Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/obama-team-tells-jewish-l_n_186874.html

[hack89]

1. This defamation of Islam movement is bad news

could you imagine life as a non-Muslim in the Arab world?

[jody]

2. "imagine life as a non-Muslim in the Arab world?" GLBT in the U.S. have some idea. n/t

[LynnTheDem]

5. Not to mention women in a "man's world".

[hack89]

6. A little over the top, don't you think?

unless you really believe that the US government under President Obama is systematically jailing, lashing and sometimes executing gays for living open lifestyles. I understand that that in many respects GLBT are treated as second class citizens but to compare it to the persecution that non-Muslims experience in Saudi Arabia shows is nonsense. There, to publicly profess any faith other than Islam is to invite arrest and torture by the government.

[jody]

7. What's your problem? I said nothing about Obama. n/t

[hack89]

9. My point has to do with government sanctioned persecution

Since you want to draw parallels to the US and since Obama is in charge of our government, the inference seemed clear to me. If you are saying that the US government does not, as a policy, persecutes its GLBT citizens I am not sure what you post had to do with mine.

[jody]

10. If it's not obvious, then I won't try to explain it to you. Have a great evening. n/t

[hack89]

11. OK nt

[Bette Noir]

4. I don't have to imagine it from scratch-- I've heard stories.

I had a colleague, a Pakistani Christian whose family had come to the US for the freedom of religion. She said that "street sweeper" was Pakistani slang for "Christian," as that was the only job open to most of them. Her father wired money to Pakistan for several relatives to fly to the US for her sister's wedding. When they tried to buy airline tickets, the relatives in Pakistan were arrested. The authorities held the position that there was no legitimate way for Christians to have enough money to travel, so they were taken into custody.

I'm a firm believer in the "sauce for the goose" rule, more commonly known as Golden. In this case, freedom and tolerance have to be granted to the minority before the majority gets to squawk.

[Jefferson23]

3. No drama Obama. he will take these steps cautiously.

[AngryAmish]

8. I hope Senator Durban changes this language