Hmm. Well, I'm the first to say that history and its personalities are always being – and sometimes actively need - to be rewritten. Revisionism need not carry the pejorative tag it invariably bears.
Just to remind you: President Obama has been fiercely criticised by Israel supporters for awarding Former Irish Prime Minister Mary Robinson the US’s highest civilian honour – the Medal of Freedom.
But Mrs Robinson has retorted (please watch below) that she is an opponent of antisemitism, and has rejected criticism of her role in the 2001 Durban United Nations Conference.
The former Human Rights Commissioner said she and the conference have been misjudged by history.
"Everybody there knows that I played a huge role in trying to fight the antisemitism. I was almost on my own in trying to do it," she said. "But that is a story that has to come out objectively."
She argued that there should be an "independent analysis of what happened in Durban."
"I think I am owed it," Robinson said. "I have been judged by people who have never met me."
She added that the US would benefit from an analysis "because we have to continue to fight antisemitism wherever we find it."
Robinson implied that the South African location of the conference contributed to "emotional antisemitism" and that as Human Rights Commissioner she did not have the capacity to control the conference's tone.
Further, she insisted that she was responsible for minimising the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel message emanating from Durban.
She also denied agreeing with the notorious conference clause which equated Zionism with racism.
"Of course not," she said emphatically. "I have been fighting antisemitism all my life. And everybody knows that who knows me."
"There was no antisemitic language in the final document," she said. "But people don't know that because there has never been a proper accounting."
Now watch the clip and tell me what YOU think!
msniw
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