Durban II No Different Than Durban I

The UN sponsored a conference on racism and it once again descended into rabid anti-Semitic and anti-Israel diatribes, led by none other than Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who happened to have the keynote address.

Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction, was the keynote speaker at this conference, and all that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon could muster was regret that nations like Israel, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Poland withdrew from participating. Ban couldn't find the words to denounce the Iranian leader who was busy calling for Israel's destruction.

Instead, it was up to various participants and those in attendance to jeer and heckle Ahmadinejad as he once again called for Israel's destruction in so many words.

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights was disappointed that the US chose to boycott the conference, instead of attacking Iran's Holocaust denying rant.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights said Sunday that she regrets -- and is "shocked" by -- the United States' decision to boycott.

"I am shocked and deeply disappointed by the United States' decision not to attend a conference that aims to combat racism, xenophobia, racial discrimination and other forms of intolerance worldwide," High Commissioner Navi Pillay said in a written statement.

Other forms of intolerance? Iran executes gays and lesbians. Saudi Arabia flogs women who are found in the presence of men who are unrelated to them and prohibits those who are not Muslim from entering Mecca and limits how those who do not practice Islam can practice their own religion in the country. Yet, Israel is repeatedly singled out at these kinds of forums.

France joined the walkout today after Ahmadinejad started his rant castigating Israel's very creation today, which also happens to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Swiss apparently had no problems meeting with the Holocaust denying thug from Iran. Israel recalled its ambassador to Switzerland ahead of Durban because of meetings the Swiss had with Ahmadinejad.

It's particularly rich that Ahmadinejad could talk about how Israel was a racist country that didn't respect the rule of law when Iranian thugs decided to hold a secret trial and convicted Roxana Saberi on charges of spying that didn't allow her to mount a defense and that was based on a forced confession. The Iranians have obfuscated on the charges, initially claiming that she was operating as a journalist without the proper permits, and then with purchasing alcohol. The Saberi case is a sham, and yet no one wants to call the Iranians out on that, or their repeated executions of homosexuals for their sexual orientation and the misogyny that is rampant in Iran and other Sharia-dominant countries.

The whole notion of allowing regimes that perpetuate racism, misogyny, and which call for the destruction of UN member nations on a regular basis undermines the very nature of these conferences and calls into question the very legitimacy of whatever declarations are made therein. They stand as a platform from which these regimes call for the destruction of Israel and attack Israel's sovereignty, even as they repress human rights and freedoms on a daily basis.

UPDATE:
Video of the principled hecklers against the clown opening up the conference: