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August 3, 2009

Boo-hoo, poor Mary Robinson thinks she is 'bullied' (updated)

Thomas Lifson
The sponsor of the anti-Semitic hate fests known as Durban I and Durban II, Mary Robinson, can't stand even the slightest criticism of her receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.

Stephen O'Farrell of the Irish Independent (Mary Robinson is Irish) reports her viewpoint:

FORMER President Mary Robinson accused "certain elements" of the Jewish community of bullying after a number of pro-Israel lobby groups voiced concerns over her being awarded the top US civilian honour. ....

Ms Robinson hit back yesterday at what she described as allegations "totally without foundation" of her condoning anti-Semitic behaviour at the Durban World Conference Against Racism in 2001.

"It's totally without foundation but when stuff is out on the internet, I'm not quite sure what you can do," Ms Robinson told RTE Radio One yesterday.

Ms Robinson insisted that she never supported any anti-Semitism and cited her decision at the conference to reject a civil society document which she deemed racist.

"There's a lot of bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community. They bully people who try to address the severe situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the same criticism."

So what exactly is the "bullying" of this powerful world figure? So far as we know, Jennifer Rubin of Commentary, Melanie Phillips of the UK Daily Mail, and this website have criticized the award, based on Robinson's track record. (Update: Claudia Rosett joins us.) Is criticism "bullying"? Most people would agree that "bullying" is bad and should be stopped. Does Robinson believe that nobody should be allowed to criticize her?

Ed Lasky adds:

Now Israel is bullied. Efforts to launch boycotts, UN Resolutions, the two Durban Conferences, among other things.

Notice a pattern here. Samantha Power complained criticism of Obama was all about "what was good for the Jews"; Chas Freeman blamed the pro-Israel lobby for forcing him to withdraw his nomination; Jeremiah Wright blames the Jews around Obama for preventing his access to him. Now we have a Presidential Medal of Freedom winner complaining about being bullied by pro-Israel lobbyists.

Obama and his team have a knack for picking thin-skinned bullies who do not like Israel and have paranoid delusions about Jews in America.
 
Update:

Jennifer Rubin joins in with a post on Commentary titled Mary Robinson, Victim
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.

She also prints the ADL Statement on Robinson.


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.

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