The Mary Robinson saga continues along predictable lines. As Thomas Lifson reports, Mary Robinson has claimed the mantle of victimhood. She declares, “There’s a lot of bullying in the Jewish community” and decries unspecified “stuff out on the internet.” All of this from some minimal reporting on her own record of “accomplishment” at the UN. Well that is rich. Anyone who objects to the coronation of the Empress of Durban is a bully. Anyone who calls into question her championing the Jenin propaganda hoax is a bully. And would that include the late Tom Lantos, who dissected her performance at Durban? Perhaps she’d like to be more specific about what inaccuracies are being put out on the Internet.
The White House is in defensive mode, hoping the whole fuss will just go away. And by refusing to comment on the “deliberations” (hard as it is to imagine that people really thought this through), they hope to quell the flurry of questions that remain. Did they think to consult with Jewish groups? Did they consider how this would be perceived in Israel? They won’t say.
But now the ADL has released a statement that reads:
The awarding of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson as an “agent of change” was ill-advised.
While Mary Robinson may have accomplishments to her credit, she also, unfortunately, has an animus towards Israel as evidenced by her tenure as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As head of the international body that was consumed with anti-Israel bias, rather than be constructive and act objectively, she became its lead cheerleader by adopting the Palestinian narrative.
She issued distorted and detrimental reports on the conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and blamed Israel for the outbreak of Palestinian violence – the Second Intifada. As the convener of the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, she allowed the process to be hijacked to promote the delegitimizing of Israel and pronouncements of hateful anti-Jewish canards, such as “Zionism is racism.” She failed miserably in her leadership role, opting to join the anti-Israel forces rather than temper them.
Ms. Robinson has been quoted as saying, “On the Palestinian side, they are the victims, etc. On the Israeli side, they feel they are the victims, in some measure” (“Democracy Now,” Pacifica Radio, Feb. 25 ,2009). Because she has not moved away from her anti-Israel bias, she is not an “Agent of Change” and is undeserving of America’s highest civilian honor.
Perhaps that will provoke further self-reflection at the White House and pry responses from a number of senators, including Sens. Schumer, Gillibrand, Specter and Feinstein, who have so far refused to respond to our inquiries.
