An ass brays in Geneva

Damn this selfish idiot. And damn this conflict for giving demagogues like him populist credibility they don't deserve.

Iran's leader sparks Western walkout at UN meeting

GENEVA – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of being the "most cruel and racist regime," sparking a walkout Monday by angry Western diplomats at a U.N. racism conference.

The hardline leader's appearance overshadowed the substance of the weeklong United Nations attempt to stamp out intolerance worldwide. The United States and eight other Western countries, expressing concerns about its fairness, were already boycotting the event.

Protesters dressed with clown wigs and holding placards repeatedly interrupted Ahmadinejad's speech with shouts of "Shame! shame!" and "Racist! racist!" throwing soft red objects on the podium. Later, about 100 members of mainly pro-Israel and Jewish groups blocked Ahmadinejad's entrance to a scheduled news conference.

Ahmadinejad, in a rambling speech, accused Israel of being the "most cruel and racist regime" and pointed the finger at the United States and Europe for helping to establish the country after World War II "under the pretext of Jewish suffering."

Israel's occupation is riddled with racism. To be fair, some of its discriminatory policies can be perhaps explained by the difficult circumstances the Jewish state finds itself in, but it's obvious to any minimally informed and fairminded observer that state-sanctioned racial discrimination permeates life in the Occupied Territories.

It is certainly not the only country that deserves censure–I'd like to see the Persian Gulf states' vicious racist treatment of its laborers called out (see this much needed exposé of Dubai's reliance of modern slavery by Johann Hari), and the toleration of a number of European countries of gross discrimination against the Roma, to name  two examples off the top of my head–but it is clearly an egregious offender whose policies fall under the purview of such a forum. If Palestinians' undeniable (and quite intentional) second class citizenship in their own lands on account of nothing more than their lack of Jewish blood does not count as racist, then truly nothing is racist.

Overheated anti-Israeli rhetoric is not the solution, but it must never be forgotten that the reality on the ground for Palestinians is very ugly, and bound to inspire passionate criticism.

As I write this, I'm tempted to use some rather strong language. Not about Israel, though, but Iran. What the freaking hell is this ass doing addressing this conference? I realize that Iran's real leaders probably aren't concerned in the slightest about racism–nor are most political elites, especially in developing countries–but are they so completely out of touch with international opinion that they don't realize how harmful having this obnoxious numbskull show up at the event is?

Honestly, do they want their country to be a laughing stock? Do they want to torpedo the causes they're lobbying for (not all of which I agree with)? 

What an embarrassment for those who care about the issues he's hijacking, too.