It’s 5:47 AM in the City of Angels and I am up early to make sure I get everything – from Ethernet cable to Lipitor – packed for my short week in Geneva. I leave about noon. Cameraman Andrew Bridgewater, who is accompanying me, had the heavy lifting, figuratively and literally, jamming tons of equipment (yesterday at PJTV hq) in a Pelican case the size of sleeper trunk. It will be fun trying to get that past the Air France check-in scales without paying an overage equal to or exceeding the AIG bailout.
Meanwhile, I have been following the unfolding drama surrounding my destination – the Durban Review Conference, an event called by the UN to “review” the results of its controversial “anti-racism” conference and Israel-bash in Durban, South Africa back in 2001. The US has still not said definitively whether it is attending Durban II. Canada, Italy and Israel are not. The EU is equivocating, but leaning toward going. We do know, however, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is attending. The Iranian president is speaking to the assembly and holding a press conference on Monday afternoon. My credentials are supposed to admit me.
In the midst of this Iran has just convicted Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi of spying. This is a case we have been following closely on PJTV. Perhaps this development will help the US make up its mind not to come. We shall see. According to The Guardian: The US has dismissed the charges against Saberi, who has reported for the BBC and America’s National Public Radio (NPR), as “baseless and without foundation”. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, expressed concern about the case and called for her release.
Hmm…. The BBC and NPR – now there’s a good cover for an American spy, if there ever was one. [How about the Guardian itself?-ed. Even better.] But I am kidding here. I wish Ms. Saberi only the best in getting out of her eight-year sentence. I’ve seen people after they’ve come out of Tehran’s Evin Prison and let’s put it this way: Whatever you might read of the “tortures of Gitmo” in our media, forget about it. This is the real deal. You come out limping with your face resembling a cubist painting – if you make it out at all.
That’s related to another reason I woke up early this morning – and have for the last few days. I haven’t been sleeping well because I fear that I am going to be getting a heavy dose of a reality I have not had to confront personally in my many decades of life: anti-Semitism. Sure, I know a great deal about it and have written about it in books and films. But as an American Jew I have lived a privileged existence. During recent years especially, this country treats the Jewish people magnificently. It is a wonderful place for us to live. At the Durban Review Conference I will be face-to-face with, interacting with and possibly even interviewing, people who despise me because of my ethnicity or religion (even though I am almost entirely secular). That can keep you up at night.
And now back to packing. [Don't forget your Kindle.-ed. It's a thirteen-flight. It's charged up and ready to go.]
UPDATE WALKING OUT THE DOOR: The latest from Reuters is that the US will not attend the conference, excerpt perhaps as an observer. I cannot help but think that the overnight Saberi conviction referenced above has played a role in this. The Iranians, particularly their hardliners that of course include Ayatollah Khamenei, have sent a signal to Obama. We’ll find out if he’s listening.
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25 Comments
1. Professor Guvinoff:Mr. Simon, Thanks for taking the pulse of the beast. I’ll be watching, knowing I’m in good company. The internet is the new frontier, and you are a brave pioneer. I think Ben Franklin looks approvingly at you. have a good flight!
Apr 18, 2009 - 9:19 am 2. Minerva:Godspeed (if as a secularist you don’t mind my writing) and you will always be an American to me…
Apr 18, 2009 - 10:20 am 3. Instapundit » Blog Archive » ROGER SIMON will be reporting from Durban II….:[...] ROGER SIMON will be reporting from Durban II. [...]
Apr 18, 2009 - 10:25 am 4. Pajamas Media » Durban II Diary: Packing:[...] the entire story here [...]
Apr 18, 2009 - 10:28 am 5. Delia:Get your sleep, Roger! Sleep keeps you sane. Have you tried taking L-tryptophan? It really works and doesn’t make you groggy in the morning.
I think you’re suffering from ‘restless mind’ syndrome though. Whenever anything daunting or stressful is coming up in my life my mind sparks off the charts and just won’t let me rest.
If you don’t mind, I will say a prayer for you today.
Best wishes and stay safe,
Delia
Apr 18, 2009 - 11:15 am 6. Anita Hope:Have a safe, interesting trip with possibly little as possible “anti-semitism”/ “racism” controversay. Prof. Guvinoff you are truly a sharpshooter with your analysis of Roger L. Simon I think we all agree as to Roger’s struggle to open the eyes of those still in the dark.
Apr 18, 2009 - 11:22 am 7. Yehudit:Don’t be surprised if Ms Saberi was found guilty to be used as a pawn for trade in getting us to pull
back on Iran, We all need to watch closly as Pres. Obama attemps to handle this , will a hand shake
open dialog for her release, let us hope so….
God speed Roger, it’s a wonderful thing you’re doing. I hope you packed enough valium ;-P
I have a friend who works with Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, she passed this on to me:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-abraham-cooper
He’s blogging the conference at HuffPo, but I can’t tell if he’s actually there. I guess you will meet him if he is.
I just went to the link and 3 out of 4 comments are defending Iran. Disgusting. If anyone reading this has a HuffPo login, the decent commenters on that site need reinforcements.
Apr 18, 2009 - 1:06 pm 8. glenn:Couple of observations. 1. The whole Iran issue may be out of President Barack H. Obamas’ hands. It’s Israels’ survival that’s at stake and they may be through with had wringing and saying Mother-May-I to the US administration. 2. American Jews who think they have Kings-X because they live in a Constitutional Republic need to think again.
Apr 18, 2009 - 1:43 pm 9. hermie:Obama is too busy partying with that noted anti-Semite (and mutual friend of William Ayers) Hugo Chavez, to do anything other than ‘express concern’. He has far too much work in apologizing for our ‘crimes’ to say anything of any substance to Iran or to those who attend Durban II.
Apr 18, 2009 - 2:34 pm 10. alan:Israel is more than just a tiny, insignificant country in the Middle East. President Obama and his cohorts have not learned that. Israel is the bulkhead preventing Islamic floods from covering the earth. Europe is already flooded with Islamic ideology. Africa, many parts of Asia and the Americas are no strangers to Islamic violence, intolerance and obsessive hatred.
Our US increasingly dictates, that Israel must adhere to the US’s plan for Middle East “peace,” otherwise America will withhold its support. The US-Israel relationship is mutually beneficial. The US as well as the rest of the world, needs Israel as a barrier against the Islamic fanaticism that threatens the Middle East and all civilization.
Iran acknowledges the importance of Israel, which accounts for Iran’s preoccupation with destroying this obstacle to controlling the region. Europe and now America’s obsequious response of to Iran’s continuing claims of destructive devices, excludes the choice of a military response. Iran sees a bunch of cowards and indeed we have become that! The world did not learn the important lesson of forceful preemption with the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981.
With his statements about not being at war with Islam, our President assures the terrorists that they may continue “diplomatic talks” while building their weapons of mass destruction. It is ridiculous to assume that appeasement will have any effect other than to bolster the sinister intentions of those committed to our destruction. To the Moslem, appeasement is recognized as weakness to be exploited.
Israel is the front line of the worldwide conflict against this enemy. Only Israel can decide what steps must be taken for its survival. Too many third party “advisors” are demanding that Israel follow some dictates. For Israel to acquiesce to this foolishness would be devastating to the world
Apr 18, 2009 - 4:17 pm 11. David Levavi:…as an American Jew I have lived a privileged existence. During recent years especially, this country treats the Jewish people magnificently. It is a wonderful place for us to live…
Hear, Hear. Needs to be said more often. Pity so many pathetically shallow American Jews don’t appreciate it.
Apr 18, 2009 - 4:33 pm 12. VC_imperative:Why on earth hasn’t The Volokh Conspiracy put its head to this yet? Where is the traction this travesty deserves from all that are free?
Thanks for your shoulder to the plow. VCers read here. We need action on Saberi. Thank goodness for blogs.
Apr 18, 2009 - 8:29 pm 13. Webutante:Have a great trip, Roger. Last time I flew Air France to Paris, they lost my bags—filled with hiking and traveling clothes for two weeks—for 5 days. But after arriving at the airport they were kind enough to give me a little consolation prize until they could find and deliver them—a little bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, French milled soap, ashower cap and a dozen prophylactics. I think they’d seen this type of thing before….
Apr 18, 2009 - 8:53 pm 14. heathermc:My hat’s off to you, Roger. It takes courage for you to do this trip, to be among such terrible people.
God speed!
Apr 18, 2009 - 9:36 pm 15. Michael:George Washington on Israel
“A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.” ~George Washington, ~page 269 of The 5000 Year Leap.
“The nation which indulges toward another habitual hatred or habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interests.” ~ George Washington
“Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
Apr 19, 2009 - 12:49 am 16. lefroy:Good luck! Try laughing at it if you can, it helps. But you probably can’t. It’s profoundly depressing. Not merely that a motley crew of grubs and wingnuts is permitted to gibber away on the international public purse. What is really disturbing is the complete loss of nerve and will on the part of civilised nations to condemn and contemn (there’s a good word) these charlatans. Mahmoud Akhmedinijad lecturing us about racism and good governance!
Apr 19, 2009 - 2:10 am 17. Gabi:#15 / “George Washington on Israel”
England was an established country in the time of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Non-coincindentally, those were the exact same reasons quoted by the propanda ministry of Nazi Germany, and repeated by their supporters, as to why the U.S. should stay out of WWII in Europe, despite mortal peril to England and other democratic nations in Europe.
Like today, feeble-minded supporters of dictatorships insisted back then that even though Germany was attacking democratic nations and rushing to develop nuclear weapons, it was outside of the United States, and if there is even such a thing as morality it needs to be limited so that “what’s out of sight is out of mind”, therefore (Achtung!)the U.S. should “mind it’s own business”.
Apr 19, 2009 - 8:23 am 18. Lightnin' Hopkins:Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.
The entangling alliance is a moot point, Michael. Israel will act, the “international community” will howl in public and heave a sigh of relief away from the cameras and microphones, and that is that.
Apr 19, 2009 - 9:25 am 19. Durban II Diary: Part 1 - packing « ACT Northern Virginia/Richmond/DC Metro Chapter. Dedicated to the Defense of our freedom from Islamic Ideology.:[...] Pajama’s Media Comments [...]
Apr 19, 2009 - 10:55 am 20. Anita Hope:Alan, your points are well stated , ” While diplomatic talks’ were starting between Pres. Roosevelt and the Japanese Envoy, Japanese planes were flying & attacking Pearl Harbor, has this not taught us the value of trusting our enemies to freedom around the world?
Apr 19, 2009 - 12:01 pm 21. mercutio:Forget the Kindle – bring Mace
Apr 19, 2009 - 12:59 pm 22. StillBill:#17 Gabi: As an Italian American, I don’t worry about Israel. They will take care of business. And if anyone doesn’t understand what “business” means, watch the “Godfather”.
Apr 19, 2009 - 6:07 pm 23. lefroy:Israel is either entitled to protect its citizens, or it is not. The resolution of the violence in Gaza is perfectly simple: the corrupt and brutal theocracy in Gaza, which took power by force, should halt the lobbing of rockets into Israel, and desire peace and co-existence with Israel.
Spot on, StillBill.
This is off-topic, but –
The people who run Hamas have no interest in peace or civil society in any sense that we understand that term. The written constitution of Hamas expressly requires not merely the destruction of Israel, but the destruction of Israel by violence. Israel is not perfect, but it is the only functioning democracy in the region. Hamas is a backward, brutal and racist theocratic group that is little better than the Taliban. It has shown contempt for its own people, for example by storing munitions in civilian structures. It despises liberal democracy and secular government. It has a racist and, it believes, scripturally-sanctioned loathing of jews.
And we are expected to be lectured to and edified by that monkey, Ahmedinijad. And no, (sigh) that’s not a racist remark.
Apr 20, 2009 - 4:31 pm 24. The Historian:IRAN & NAZI GERMANY: THE DIFFERENCES ARE NOT SUBSTANTIVE
At the heart of both is the drive to kill the Jews.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/iran-nazi-germany-one-in-same.html
Apr 21, 2009 - 3:58 pm 25. » Some of this Week’s Events News of His Land: A Blog focused upon Israel and current events from a Christian Zionist view:[...] Media
Apr 25, 2009 - 11:04 pm