Jewish groups watching U.S. participation in Durban II talks

The Obama administration is working to ease Jewish concerns about its decision to take part in a preparatory meeting for considering the upcoming Durban II conference.

At issue is the upcoming Durban Review Conference, set to take place at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva in late April.

U.S. Jewish groups are worried that the gathering will be a repeat of the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish free-for-all that was the first conference in South Africa in 2001.

Canada and Israel already have said they will not participate. The Netherlands and France also are considering not attending.

But the U.S. State Department set off alarm bells Sunday in the Jewish community by announcing that it would be taking part in consultations this week ahead of the conference.

By the next day Daniel Shapiro, the National Security Council officer handling Israel affairs, had convened a conference call with Jewish communal leaders. Shapiro reinforced the message in the State Department release that the administration was still a long way off from attending the actual conference.

"Our participation in these informal negotiations does not indicate -- and should not be misconstrued to indicate -- that the United States will participate in April in the World Conference Against Racism itself," the State Department statement said in its statement. "Nor does it indicate that we will necessarily participate in future preparations for the Conference. These decisions will be taken at a later date, depending on the results that we see from the negotiating process." More

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