The US to boycott the UN

US to boycott UN anti-racism meeting, because of anti-Israel bias

Washington

A U.S. senator says the United States has decided not to attend next year's follow-up to the 2001 U.N. World Conference on Racism because the panel seems certain to repeat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions of the original gathering.

The United States and Israel walked out of that conference, which ended two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Thursday that the United States had not yet determined whether to participate. He said the decision would be up to the next U.S. administration because the conference is to take place after President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

But, he said, the U.S. has seen nothing from the organizers that would change Washington's view that the conference's tone will be anti-Semitic. "I certainly don't think that presently we view it as a particularly valuable activity," Casey said.

Word that the United States would reject the conference again came from Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. In a news release, Coleman said the decision came in response to a letter he and 26 fellow senators wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"The U.S. walked out of this conference after the anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli activities reached such an intolerable level that it was beyond repair," the letter said. It called the conference "yet another example of a seemingly noble U.N. agenda item being hijacked by member states to spew anti-Semitism."

continues here: IHT