Israel

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will boycott "with regret"a United Nations conference on racism next week over objectionable language in the meeting's final document that could single out Israel for criticism and restrict free speech, the State Department said yesterday. The decision follows weeks of furious internal debate and will likely please Israel and Jewish groups that lobbied against US participation. But the move upset human rights advocates and some in the African-American community who had hoped that President Obama, the nation's first black president, would send an official delegation.

"W hat happened," asks Michael Oren, "to Israel's reputation?" The Israeli ambassador to the United States , a noted historian, combat veteran, and bestselling author, raised that question in a Wall Street Journal essay last week. Writing on the 64th anniversary of Israeli independence, Oren began by quoting from Life magazine's salute to the Jewish state on its 25th birthday in 1973 — a 92-page special issue that honored modern Israel, an island of enlightened democratic courage flourishing against all odds amid a sea of Arab hostility and violence.

GENEVA - The United Nations opens its first global racism conference in eight years today with the United States and at least seven other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that it denounce Israel and ban criticism of Islam. The Obama administration announced Saturday that it would boycott "with regret" the weeklong meeting in Geneva, which already is experiencing much of the bickering and political infighting that marred the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa.

Israel's defense minister says Iran's preliminary agreement to open its nuclear facilities to U.N. inspectors doesn't rule out a possible Israeli military strike. Ehud Barak said on Wednesday that he's skeptical about the deal, which he calls an Iranian ploy to fend off international pressure to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. But Barak told Army Radio that buying time is a problem for Israel. He says that a "nuclear Iran is intolerable and no options should be taken off the table.

CARACAS — President Hugo Chávez denounced Israel yesterday as a “genocidal’’ government as he hosted President Bashar Assad of Syria on his first visit to Latin America. Chávez has drawn close to Syria and Iran, and cut ties with Israel last year to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Assad called Israel a state “based on crime, slaughter.’’ He also sardonically suggested Venezuela and Syria could help form an “an organization called the ‘axis of evil,’ in which good governments would participate.’’

I READ about the shameful treatment of a pediatrics professor in Israel when she received an award for a book she had co-written on hereditary diseases common among Jews ("Israel turns inward over role of religion: Ultra-Orthodox moves against women decried," Page A4, Jan. 15). Not only did she have to sit in a section reserved for women only, because men and women were segregated at the ceremony, but she had to have a male colleague receive her award because women weren't allowed on stage.

JERUSALEM - Israel's government yesterday postponed discussion of landmark legislation that would pay Jewish settlers to leave their homes in the West Bank, but said it would take up the matter next week. At the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that Israel would probably have to uproot West Bank settlers as part of a future peace agreement. In light of Israel's continuing peace talks with the Palestinians, he added, "it would be proper" to think about providing cash incentives for settlers to leave voluntarily.

Brookline Booksmith has two authors reading from their books set in Israel next week. On April 18, follow an Arab criminal defense attorney in Jerusalem as he investigates the story behind a love letter to another man in his wife's handwriting with Sayed Kashua, author of "Second Person Singular. " Return the next night to celebrate the reissue of Alice Hoffman's "The Dovekeepers," about several Jewish women caught in the siege of Masada in 70 AD. Both readings start at 7 p.m. at the book store, 279 Harvard St. Details at www.brooklinebooksmith.com or 617-566-6660.

JERUSALEM - The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency has accused the country's political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military attack on Iran, in a striking indication of Israel's turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. Yuval Diskin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak - who have been saber-rattling for months - have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran.

H.D.S. GREENWAY is right to underline the dilemma facing Israel as a democratic nation ruling a colonized people ("Israel's modern tragedy," Op-ed, Jan. 3). Just as surely as European colonies made a mockery of Europe's claims to democracy and enlightenment, so too does Israel's more than 40 years of occupation steadily erode its democratic legitimacy. It's a telling sign that Israel's response to fair criticism — a warning not to meddle in its internal affairs — is the same used by autocratic regimes the world over.

Sudan's official news agency says a car has exploded in a Red Sea port in the country's east, killing one man. SUNA says the blast took place on Tuesday at the entrance to Port Sudan, 680 kilometers (425 miles) northeast of the capital of Khartoum. It did not provide further details. The agency quoted police spokesman Maj. Gen. al-Sir Ahmed Omar as saying that police are investigating the cause. Sudan is not known for any militant group that uses car bombs or similar tactics inside the country.

Excerpts from the Innovation Economy blog. If you have kids, you've probably gotten used to handing them your phone so they can play games or watch videos. So what about handing them your phone so they can insert it into a Nerf-like ball and toss it around? That's the idea behind a new product from Physical Apps in Hollis, N.H. TheO Ball is a foam sphere with a pocket in its center to keep the phone safe while allowing players to see its screen. Some of the initial games will be bowling, hot potato, and a question-and-answer game called Interrogo, but the company also plans a software...

Qatar's ruler says Israel is more isolated by the Arab Spring and will face increasing pressures over issues such as its presumed nuclear arsenal. Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani urged Israel's leaders to view the Middle East uprisings as an opportunity for serious peace talks with Palestinians. The fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak last year wiped away Israel's main Arab ally, and Qatar's emir predicts the region's new governments will press Israel harder over its policies, including a widely suspected nuclear arms program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that Israel could be swamped by illegal migrants from Africa. The mounting number of migrants is high on the national agenda following a series of crimes, including rapes, that have been blamed on the newcomers. Netanyahu says the influx is "threatening the fabric of Israeli society, its national security and its national identity. " He says if Israel doesn't stop it, then "60,000 infiltrators are liable to become 600,000, and lead to the eradication of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

The Palestinian campaign to boycott goods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank has received a boost from abroad with an unprecedented South African proposal to have the name of Israel dropped from labels on merchandise made in the settlements. The South African government issued a notice saying it wants to require merchants "not to incorrectly label products that originate from the Occupied Palestinian Territory as products of Israel. " The notice did not specify what the labels should say and the proposal has not yet taken effect, pending public...

Relatives of a slain Hamas operative seek to block the release of a movie being made in Israel about his 2010 assassination in a Dubai luxury hotel, a family member said Sunday. The killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was widely blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency, which never confirmed or denied involvement. Israeli defense officials have alleged that he played a role in smuggling weapons from Iran to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The movie, which features Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli as a temptress working for the hit team, is a "Zionist conspiracy" to...

ONCE AGAIN, the Middle East is in the news. President Obama gave a much-anticipated speech on the region on May 19. A day later, the president met in the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Then Obama appeared before AIPAC to further explain his views, followed the next day by Netanyahu. Much attention has focused on the differences that reportedly exist between the United States and Israel. Of course, every country has its national interests, and no two sets of national interests are completely identical, especially when applied to a region as complex and multi-faceted as the Middle East.

RE "OBAMA offers clarity on Iran, and a vital message to Israel" (Editorial, March 6): "We've got Israel's back," as President Obama said, is a cute pop culture line; however, it has no place in serious life or death international negotiations involving our most staunch ally in the Middle East, who is bound to us by strategic, historic, and even moral ties. While our commitment to Israel's security has always been implicit, it is imperative that it now become explicit. Let there be no misunderstanding: An attack on Israel would be considered an attack on the United...

An Israeli military court on Sunday convicted a Palestinian protest leader of urging youths to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers, ruling in a case that sparked international criticism of Israeli practices in the West Bank. Bassem al-Tamimi — a symbol of Palestinian opposition to Israeli military rule praised by the European Union as a human rights defender — was convicted largely because of a confession by a 15-year-old interrogated without a lawyer. The veteran activist has led weekly marches in his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh to protest Jewish settlers seizing a nearby well for...

Israeli feminists on Friday welcomed a Supreme Court ruling they say will help enforce equal pay laws for men and women. The ruling, issued Thursday, requires employers paying different wages to men and women to prove it is not due to gender discrimination. The decision stemmed from a case that began with a woman who was earning 70 percent of the wage of a male colleague at a hardware store chain. Her employer claimed this was because she requested a lower salary when applying.