Israeli Papers Report: Durban II a Success, Thanks to Ahmadinejad

Today, Israel's newspapers report on yesterday's Durban II conference against racism, and particularly the tumult during Iranian President's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech. Israeli reports, overwhelmingly, describe yesterday's event as a success for Israel.

Maya Bengal writes in Ma'ariv:

A sense of relief permeated the corridors of the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem yesterday. For the past two years they have been troubled by the UN conference against racism which was scheduled to take place in Geneva yesterday. Yesterday was their day of truth.

In Durban I the battle was fought over the phrasing of the resolution, but this time the Foreign Ministry decided not to take any chances. They went for the entire jackpot: a special war room was formed, representatives across the world worked in the various countries to convince them to boycott the conference, Foreign Ministry officials held talks with representatives of the various embassies, and a front was even formed at the UN in New York.

In short, no sphere was left untouched. This time Israel had learned its lesson - and yesterday this paid off. But the one who contributed most to Israel's success in its struggle was none other than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "If the conference was aimed at combating racism and the oppression of minorities and to support human rights, then inviting Ahmadinejad was counterproductive," said Shir-On. "If he had not arrived and delivered a hate-filled speech, it could have been far more difficult. We were afraid he would come and deliver some boy scout's address, and then we would have had a hard time explaining all our drama."

But Ahmadinejad behaved as Ahmadinejad behaves. He delivered: he gave his hate-filled speech and the European Union countries which had not boycotted the conference until then, did so in the course of his speech.

According to Itamar Eichner in Yediot Acharonoth, however, the conference proceedings did produce a negative result, "a breakdown in relations between Israel and Switzerland":

Following the meeting between Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which included an official dinner and a handshake, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman decided to recall the ambassador in Bern for consultations. Ambassador Ilan Alger will meet with Foreign Minister Lieberman for consultations and may return to Switzerland within the coming days.