The naming of Mary Robinson as a Presidential medal of Honor recipient has ignited a firestorm over her anti-Israel stance, as well as her acceptance of terror directed at civilians. In covering the controversy for the New York Times, Mark Landler helps push Robinson's feeble excuse that she is not responsible for what was said and done at the two Durban Conferences which became anti-Israel hate fests (as was inevitable from their set-up and composition).

Much of the criticism centers on Mrs. Robinson's leadership of an antiracism conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. The delegations from the United States and Israel walked out in the middle to protest a torrent of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements, which critics say Mrs. Robinson did little to stop. ....

Mrs. Robinson said she was "surprised and dismayed" by the protests. In a telephone interview on Thursday, she said she had fought unsuccessfully to prevent the Durban meeting from devolving into an attack on Israel.

"This is old, recycled, untrue stuff," Mrs. Robinson, who now runs Realizing Rights, a human rights group in New York, said from California. "I have been very critical of the Palestinian side. My conduct continues to be on the side of tackling anti-Semitism and discrimination."