UN Official Blames Israel for Anti-Israel Forum

Tharoor: Don't Blame Me for Israeli Moonbats on Panel

The New York Sun reports today on an annual Israel-bashing ritual in Paris, and noted that the Anti-Defamation League had demanded that Kofi Annan "reconsider his support for the gathering." The ADL observed that the annual Paris junket was a hate-Israel talk-fest despite a change in its name from "support for Palestinian people" to "Middle East peace."

That drew an amazing response to the ADL's valid concerns from UN Propaganda Minister Shashi Tharoor, who runs the UN's bloated, taxpayer-funded spin apparatus. The Sun reported that Tharoor "said that when one General Assembly-mandated seminar his department has organized changed its name, the agenda began to shift as well." He went on to blame Israel for the anti-Israel slant of his own department's forums!

Tharoor was referring to an annual crush-Israel media event, sponsored by the "Palestine, Decolonization and Human Rights Section" of Tharoor's Department of Public Information. The name change that Tharoor is bragging about is that this annual UN-paid junket changed its name from "International Media Encounter on the Question of Palestine" to "International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East."

Yeah, right. Big change. Under the old name, Tharoor hosted the vicious anti-Semite Israel Shamir among the usual assemblage of Palestinian spokespeople and terrorist apologists at its 2001 annual conclave in Paris.

Just last month, under its new name, the Israeli delegation to the annual DPI media extravaganza included the anti-Zionist loon Ilan Pappe, shunned throughout Israel for his support of the anti-Israel boycott, and an assortment of anti-Israel Israelis. Not a single Palestinian or Arab speaker, of course, deviated one iota from the crush-Israel line.

The 2005 meeting featured speaker after speaker whose idea of "Peace in the Middle East" is for Jews to march single file into the Mediterranean, as emerged from even the sanitized minutes of the proceedings. "Representing" Israel was a succession of Israel-bashing Israelis, such as Gideon Levy of Ha'aretz and the Israeli Moonbat Shulamit Aloni, drawing approving coverage from the Arab media.

Under the headline, "UN regional seminar on Peace: Israelis condemn Sharon's policy," a Moroccan newspaper led off its account by joyously reporting that Aloni, "a former member of the Israeli Knesset and professor of political science in Israel, urged the international community to pay attention to the Israeli systematic policy of genocide against the Palestinian people."

Far from promoting "peace in the Middle East," trotting out Israeli Moonbats just hardens anti-Israeli attitudes in the Arab world, by deluding Arab audiences into believing that such loons have any more significance than steam from a loose sewer vent.

Indeed, the Israeli Moonbats at the meeting elicited this typical affirmation of brotherhood, according to the UN transcript: An unidentified "speaker" said that "Israel was not peace loving. It lived on blood and it wanted to suck the blood of the Arabs. It had taken Palestine by force. The 'Road Map' and the Quartet had not been able to force Israel to respect the peace process, stop its assassinations and closures, or allow the Palestinian economy to be revived."

CAMERA later said this about the 2005 meeting: "Just like the U.N.'s 2001 Durban Conference Against Racism itself became a racist anti-Israel hate fest, the U.N.'s media seminar this week supposedly promoting sober, factual journalism about the conflict turned into a platform for anti-Israel distortions and incitement."

And that is what Tharoor calls an improvement?

To make his vile spin even worse, Tharoor actually denied responsibility for the loons he and his bloated staff select to represent Israel. Said the Sun: "He complained that the Israeli government has 'actively discouraged' Israelis from participating, making it difficult for the United Nations to depict Israeli politics in a balanced manner."

So there we have it, folks, straight from the mouth of Shashi Tharoor. Next time you hear about a UN program that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel, remember who is to blame: Not the UN, and certainly not the organizers of the program, in this case, Shashi Tharoor. Blame Israel.