As Anne Bayefsky points out, it is not unexpected that the "Durban III" conference on racism is seeking to condemn Israel. What is interesting is how brutal they think they can get without having more countries boycott the conference:

With the recent pull-outs by the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands added to the previously declared boycotts by the United States, Canada and Israel, negotiations at U.N. Headquarters continued Thursday over how offensive the final declaration of Durban III can become without more countries following suit.

The Durban III conference will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the conference held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. That event produced the Durban Declaration, which accused just one country on earth of racism, namely Israel. No negotiations, therefore, can hide the fact that Durban III is a commemoration - in the words of the authorizing General Assembly resolution - of a conference and an outcome remembered most notably for its overt anti-Semitism.

Nevertheless, the U.N.'s idea is that since the General Assembly hall in September will be filled with heads of government already present for the Assembly's annual opening, more than a hundred world leaders will embrace the Durban Declaration and its racist-Israel mantra for the first time. Durban I sported only a handful of such leaders - like Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro -- while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the only one to attend Durban II.

How bad might the final statement be? Even Germany is looking to sign on:

The co-chairs from Cameroon and Monaco made the agenda painfully obvious. They insisted that the 2011 declaration will "not re-open previously agreed text" since their "mandate is clearly not to renegotiate the Durban Declaration." On the contrary, Durban III will have the Durban Declaration "at its core."

In light of such an admission, the maneuvering of Germany proved most pathetic of all. German diplomats announced that Germany was a beacon of fighting discrimination. They then declared that the draft declaration, which commemorates and reinforces Durban I, was a good basis for discussion, and they were happily prepared to keep engaging in this "constructive" manner. They did manage to note that singling out any country will not be acceptable to them.

In short, according to Germany, a square peg can be fit into a round hole. The Durban Declaration already singles out Israel. The purpose of Durban III is to applaud the Durban Declaration. At Durban II in Geneva in 2009, Germany pulled out just two days before Ahmadinejad opened the conference on the anniversary of Hitler's birth. True to form (which Germany would have known months beforehand) Ahmadinejad said: "The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces." How long will it take the Germans to figure it out this time?

The Germans won't be the only western country who will seek to pander to the enemies of Israel while proclaiming a devotion to "diversity." It is times like this that the Israeli government will be able to see who their real friends are.