Bad News Ladies

Gerald Steinberg deals with Durban II and the US decision to attend in Obama's high-risk engagement at 'Durban II' and writes:

The Obama Administration's decision to jump into the preparations for the UN's Durban Review Conference, scheduled for Geneva in April 2009, is a bold but also a risky move. Beyond the specific results in this case, the results will set the tone for relations with Iran, the challenge of radical Islam, chances for progress in George Mitchell's peace efforts, and the policy based on engagement and dialogue.

But, in my opinion, without dealing with the subject of exactly who prodded this decision, it might well be that not only is it a risky decsion but perhaps one that is in line with the Durban attack on Israel.

Omri Ceren over at a post on Mere Rhetoric suggest a bleak picture and quotes Abe Selig in the JPost earlier this week writing:

One official who is reportedly pressuring Secretary of State Clinton to take part in Durban II is the new American Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, who was Obama's close campaign adviser and has pushed for the US to join the UN Human Rights Council, which was boycotted by the Bush administration, partly because of its one-sided criticism of Israel. The other official reportedly pushing for American involvement in "Durban II" is Samantha Power, an Obama adviser at the National Security Council who participated in the initial Durban conference as the representative of an NGO and has a history of making controversial statements about Israel.

Omri, there in his post, attacks Marty Peretz who is defending Obama (here) and notes the Peretz writes:

...Samantha Power...is a friend, a good friend, in fact. She has uttered some phrases about Israel that I did not like and that I thought were erroneous. We have quarreled over them. She reminds me, as I've told her and others, of Maud Gonne, the lover of W.B. Yeats and a fiery Irish nationalist. How can she not grasp deeply Jewish nationalism, its romance and its realities?

Omri insists that Samantha and Susan Rice -

They're not pushing for involvement in the planning stages. They're pushing for involvement in Durban II as such. They apparently have Obama's ear since they've thus far achieved involvement in the planning. If the President bails out later that might be a limited defense of his actions. Maybe. But it wouldn't be a defense of Rice and Power.

It turns out that people who make their career out of criticizing the US-Israel alliance will, given the opportunity, try to erode the US-Israel alliance.

These ladies are "bad news" for Israel.

Steinberg Coins a Term: Neo-colonialism

Professor Gerald Steinberg, who heads the Program on Conflict Management at Bar-Ilan University and is the executive director of NGO Monitor, has made a tremendous contribution to our semantic struggles in the war of words and ideas:-

...when foreign governments team up with and provide financial support to private Israeli groups in order to oppose policies selected by democratically elected leaders, this is a problem. It is also a violation of sovereignty, and a clear example of neocolonialism

.

He goes on:-

In democratic societies, government officials who provide funds to these entities generally use this as a means to promote their own interests and objectives, without checks and balances or transparency. In closed non-democratic societies, such as Syria, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, foreign government assistance for NGOs that promote democracy, tolerance, and human rights may have a positive impact, but only if this support is carefully monitored to prevent abuse. Europe's failure to provide such monitoring exacerbates the damage.

Israel, as a vibrant democracy, does not need, and should not be the target of "civil society initiatives" engineered by foreign governments, whether well-meaning or hostile. From this perspective, the example of Bimkom, the security barrier, and the British Embassy is small but highly illustrative.

The time has come to end this misguided and patronizing policy.

Article here.

========================

UPDATE

Gerald infomrs me that the term has existed for years.