Arab peace or Durban war?
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[Excerpt:]
"At the end, UN officials such as Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay tried to portray the review conference a success, but this was hardly convincing. Ahmadinezhad’s performance reinforced the image of a circus atmosphere, far from the sobering discussion of combating racism that the UN had sought to promote. As a result, the prospect of yet another Durban conference is unlikely to gain much support. Instead, narrative wars using the language of human rights and international law will be fought in mini-Durbans such as the meetings of the UN Human Rights Council. President Obama has announced that the US would return to these sessions, after the Bush administration condemned this framework as counterproductive. But if discussion of main human rights abuses continues to be vetoed by the various governments, and Israel again becomes the obsessive focus, with the participation of the NGO network, the American return is likely to be short-lived. The resulting damage goes beyond undermining the moral foundations of human rights and has a direct impact on the prospects for the Arab Peace Initiative and a two-state solution. The demonization of Zionism and Israel, particularly through terms such as "apartheid", is entirely incompatible with mutual acceptance and recognition of legitimacy. Such terms, when used by Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian and other Arab officials in the preparatory conferences for Durban II or in other frameworks and boycott campaigns, suggest that the API is not serious. To demonstrate that the long period of de-legitimization has ended, the language of the Durban strategy must disappear."