The US intends to boycott the anti-racism conference due to be held in Geneva in April 2009. This is ironic, considering that the new US president is a black American with a Muslim father. Barack Obama's election was an inspiration to millions around the world who were hoping for a change in US policy. The US claim that the conference will be anti-Semitic is perhaps the first major concession the Obama administration has extended to Israel. As Israeli officials continued to campaign against the conference in various European capitals, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, urged member states to set aside their differences and pay attention to the task at hand. How far exactly is the Obama administration willing to go to humour the Israelis? This question is of utmost importance considering the high hopes that surrounded Obama's accession to power. In fact, the extent of the new administration's support to Israel is likely to influence all aspects of US foreign policy, as it did for years. It was the unquestioning support given by most former US presidents to Israel that undermined their country's interests in the Middle East and beyond. The US went to war for Israel. And it has experienced attacks both at home and abroad because of its bias to Israel. So far, it seems that President Obama is maintaining the pro-Israeli bias of American policy. Washington said that it wouldn't attend the conference so long as Israel was on the agenda. Two other countries decided to boycott the Geneva conference: Israel and Canada. Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused the conference of prejudice and hatred of the Zionist state. But the real reason the Americans and Israelis are staying away from the conference is that it is scheduled to discuss the suffering of the Palestinian people at Israel's hands. Obama promised change, and yet his administration is acting just as the Bush administration did. The previous US administration, you may recall, pulled out of the first anti-apartheid conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. Back then, the Americans and Israelis withdrew from the conference over what they considered to be anti-Israel diatribes. It is ironic that Obama, a black man with a Muslim father, should boycott a conference on racism -- so much for the president's message of change. Washington's boycott of the anti-racism conference is a wake-up call for all those who hoped for a new course in US policy. It is also a disappointment for all those who believed that Obama would avoid the mistakes of his predecessors.
