Jews groups hedge on Durban II boycott
By DAN IZENBERG AND ALLISON HOFFMAN
December 11, 2008
The Jerusalem Post 
Original Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728147336&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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The  American Jewish Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Major American  Jewish Organizations refused to support unequivocally a call by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for all countries who care about Israel and oppose anti-Semitism to boycott the second Durban Conference against Racism, scheduled to be held in April at the UN headquarters in Geneva. 
 On Tuesday, Livni held a  conference call with Jewish organizations throughout the world. The participants discussed the foreign minister's statement of November 19, in which she declared that Israel will not participate and will not legitimize the [Durban] review conference, which will be used as a platform for further anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic activity. We call upon the international community not to participate. 
Linvi's call has been backed by American Jewish leaders, including Elie Wiesel, Alan Dershowitz and Bernard Lewis, who have called for an immediate, unconditional boycott of the Geneva conference. 
During Tuesday's discussion with Livni, Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Presidents Conference, told her its official position was to call for non-attendance under the current circumstances. 
The president of the Conference, Harold Tanner, is the former head of the AJC. 
This position was reportedly shared by the AJC's executive director, David Harris. During a visit to Israel in March, Harris said the Durban follow-up conference could still be salvaged.
We can't afford to declare Durban II lost without more focus on diplomacy, especially toward the  European Union countries and others influenced by them, Harris said. 
The AJC is allegedly in contact with State Department officials who oppose boycotting the Durban conference. 
Israel and the US walked out of the first conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001, after the official declaration of the government representatives equated Zionism with racism. 
The governmental conference was preceded by a conference of NGOs from across the world that turned into an anti-Israel hatefest. The NGO declaration accused Israel of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and called for a policy of totally isolating it, including cutting off all diplomatic, economic, social and military links. 
Israel and Canada have already announced they will not attend the follow-up conference, nicknamed Durban II, which is set to be held in Geneva in April. Livni announced the decision at a meeting of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in February. 
Harris called the allegations about State Department contacts malicious gossip and backstabbing, and said efforts to shame organizations into calling for a boycott were muscular posturing at a time when organizations such as the AJC were still pursuing diplomacy in hopes of changing the Durban II agenda. 
This is not about competitive concern - we're all concerned, he said. If Durban II is going to happen, it's going to have to look very different than it's appearing to look right now, and the one wild card in this is whether the Obama administration believes it can transform it by using its political capital and whether it wants to expend that capital. 
Harris said the AJC had not endorsed a boycott at this stage because the organization, which is affiliated with UN Watch in Geneva, was still trying to work out whether Europeans' criteria for attending - that it not be the same as the first Durban conference - had been violated before it called for non-attendance. 
If so, we can go to the Europeans and say, 'Ah-ha, by your own standards you should not participate,' Harris said. All of us want to proceed on the most solid ground possible. 
He said it was not yet clear how the Obama administration would approach the question. 
We are going to have to be very smart about how we handle it with them, Harris said. He flatly denied any knowledge of shenanigans in Washington on the Durban issue. 
Hoenlein called the allegations completely untrue. 
He said the full board of the Presidents Conference had voted last week to authorize the organization to call on the US government not to participate in Durban II. 
Hoenlein said the organization was not explicitly calling for a boycott because it objected to the use of the word. 
We don't like the word 'boycott' because it conjures up a lot of connotations, especially vis-á-vis Israel, Hoenlein explained, but he said the Presidents Conference had been in touch with both the Bush administration and the Obama transition team about not participating, and had previously expressed support for Israel's decision not to attend. 
Hoenlein said that if the Durban II agenda were changed, the Conference might be willing to reverse its view. 
But none of the indications so far are that it can be taken in that direction - we clearly see that all the red lines that have been enumerated by the Europeans have been violated, Hoenlein told The Jerusalem Post.