The Poster Boy for Racism

By Mike Evans

(GENEVA, Switzerland) – The United Nations hosted the Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, this week with the sole objective of eliminating racial discrimination. What a noble experiment. One would think the U.N. would have invited President Barack Obama as a speaker rather than Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust and considers Israel a "stinking corpse" that needs to be wiped off the map.

Nothing reflects the divisiveness between the two cultures better than the reaction to Ahmadinejad's tirade at the conference. The Muslim world cheered; delegates from 24 Western countries rose as one body and marched to the exit.

The diminutive despot chose April 20, 2009, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, to call for the decimation of Israel. He appealed to the assembly to encourage and support the fight to eradicate what he called Israel's "barbaric racism. Efforts must be made to put an end to Zionism," intoned the fanatical Ahmadinejad. We must not forget that eradicate means to exterminate.

The leader gave a nod to what was to be the central point of the conference, human rights worldwide; then he zeroed in on the West and berated what he characterized as the evils of Zionism. He had the audacity to minimize the horrors suffered by the Jewish people during World War II by labeling the Holocaust the "pretext of Jewish suffering."

Prior to the opening ceremonies of the conference, Germany, Australia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Israel and the United States sent their regrets. During Ahmadinejad's speech, 24 delegates rose and marched out in protest including those representing Britain, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. While Ahmadinejad decried the behavior of those who exited the hall as "rude," he had no problem being interrupted with applause by delegates from such Muslim countries as Iran and Pakistan.

Outside the conference setting, pro-Jewish organizations reverently recited the names of some of the 6 million people who perished in the Holocaust.

A statement issued by the U.S. called the Iranian's remarks "hateful." Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, told reporters: "Obviously, the president disagrees vehemently with what was said … so did many others." Although U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had asked Ahmadinejad not to cause disruption and division with his comments, he was sorely disappointed. Ban pointed out that the comments were used "to accuse, divide and even incite."

Even as Ahmadinejad was holding court in Geneva, a solemn event was being conducted at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel. President Shimon Peres, presiding over Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies, called Ahmadinejad's trip to Geneva "a deplorable disgrace." He said, "The conference opening today in Geneva constitutes an acceptance of racism, rather than the fight against it, and its main speaker is Ahmadinejad, who calls for the annihilation of Israel and denies the Holocaust."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to those countries that chose not to give their seal of approval to the events in Geneva. Netanyahu vowed, "We will not let the Holocaust deniers perpetrate another holocaust on the Jewish people."

One has to question why the United Nations provided a venue for a head of state who leads a country where methodical and organized tyranny is practiced daily, a country where women are cruelly subjugated.

It is horrifying to think that the rhetoric spouted during Ahmadinejad's speech was delivered by the man who controls a country on the brink of becoming a nuclear power. Iran will soon have the tools to attempt to carry out its threats to wipe Israel off the map.

The leaders of this superpower wannabe are motivated by a deep-seated hatred for all things the Western world represents – freedom and choice among them. This is a dogma that can't be ignored by those so wishful for adulation that they will turn a blind eye to the nature of the beast in order affect change. Ahmadinejad is a fanatical leader whose only emotions are hatred and vengeance.

In 2001, just days before the 9/11 attacks, the U.N. sponsored the first Durban Conference. Instead of fighting racial discrimination, Durban only fueled and fed it. The Crusaders (America) and the Zionists (Israel) were charged with racism, slavery and colonialism.

This despite the fact charges were being levied by Arab countries guilty of blatant discrimination. No mention was made during that conference of the genocide in Rwanda or Iraq, or the gassing of the Kurds; no condemnation was levied against Iran's use of children as minesweepers during the Iran-Iraq War; nor was there a mention of the repressive regime in Saudi Arabia.

Jews are banned from setting a foot on the soil in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East. It is no wonder Durban deteriorated into an anti-Semitic hate fest against Israel.

The U.S. and Israel exited those proceedings in South Africa in protest while conference goers took to the streets to parade vile posters that portrayed the Jews as having fangs dripping with blood. Following 9/11, the world media refused to call the events of that infamous day what they were: bigotry against the Americans (Crusaders).

The war on terror is, in fact, not a war against terror or against an ideology; it is a war against bigotry and racism. This war has never really been fought. Even the debate over the right of the Jewish people to exist is beyond comprehension. Racism and bigotry are the soil in which the virus of terror grows. This is a war that cannot be won unless the root of racism is exposed.

Ahmadinejad has become the poster boy for racial discrimination. He smiles, while watching his nuclear centrifuges run on a fast-forward track, and says he likes Jews; he just hates Zionists and denies the Holocaust. His rhetoric did not appear to inspire the millions of Zionists living in Israel who are aware that one-third of the Jewish race was exterminated during the Holocaust – including 5 million adults and almost 1 million children.

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