HAARETZ: Senior U.S. officials in Washington and New York are leaning in favor of participating in the "Durban 2" UN-sponsored anti-racism conference scheduled to take place on April 20 in Geneva, diplomatic sources said on Sunday.
The diplomats, who share a close working relationship with the American delegation to the United Nations, informed leading Jewish officials in New York that Washington has increasingly become convinced of the need to dispatch representatives to the conference.
Israel plans on boycotting the conference for fear that it will turn into a platform for singling out Jerusalem for criticism over its policies in the Palestinian territories.
Leading figures in the organized American Jewish community have been lobbying Western ambassadors and European diplomats in the UN to dissuade their governments from participating in the Geneva summit.
A senior Jewish activist who took part in some of the discussions with Western diplomats told Haaretz that he would not be the least surprised if the U.S. indeed decides to send an official delegation. The official said that while the U.S. pledged it would not participate, it was not an adamant opposition.
Dozens of human rights groups and activists in the United States have petitioned President Barack Obama to rethink his decision to boycott the conference, expected by many countries to be used as a forum for criticizing Israel. >>> By Shlomo Shamir and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents Sunday, April 12, 2009
