The World Needs more Israeli and not less

The most remarkable thing about the first day of the UN sponsored conference on racism was not the hate speech screed given by the leader of Iran or the clowning given by protestors to his speech. Nor would I characterize the walk-out given by the few remaining western nations as remarkable when Ahmadinejad hit his boogie of hate for the Jewish people.

The most remarkable feature of the first day of the conference was the belief that Durban 2 would be any different from Durban 1 when going into the conference most of the players committed to the conference still clung to their same demons. Here is a basic truth; if the Jewish people didn’t exist then the world would then have a need to invent them.

Does racism exist in Israel? Yes, but here’s the difference. The most fundamental characteristic of Israeli society is that it has to be the most self-critical and inward looking society established in the modern world. For every ill of Israeli society; there are literally thousands upon thousands of internal critics waging a ruthless campaign in the public forum to right any wrong or perceived wrong, and unlike the vast majority of dissents from totalitarian societies, these are not powerless players or merely voices crying out into the wilderness. The biggest champion of anyone’s rights in Israel, remain the Israeli people themselves.

Until the vast majority of participates in any UN conference on racism are willing to go full-tilt Israeli and turn the mirror on themselves as ruthlessly as the Israelis do on a regularly basis; these UN conferences on racism will remain nothing more than the public aggrandizement of hate and bigotry for the ‘other’.