Three Cheers for Italy as they Pull out of Durban

Let's hear it for the Italians, who are actually getting it now. Europe might not be totally lost. The Italians have pulled out of Durban. The Daily Telegraph had the following reason:

"Foreign Minister Franco Frattini decided that Italy was withdrawing its delegation because it does not approve of the draft declaration, which contains unacceptable, aggressive and anti-Semitic phrases,'' a spokesman said today.

That's right, the OIC is attempting to have Islam held above reproach, while allowing it's own proponents (Imams) to say the following, which went uncondemned in the wider Muslim world:

"Oh Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. Oh Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, oh our God. Lie in wait for them. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people of Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, and You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale, and You destroyed the Pharaoh and his soldiers — oh Allah, take this oppressive, tyrannical band of people. Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one."

A prescient move for the Italians if you ask me. And the Italians hit the nail on the head with the following statement from their foreign ministry, saying attendance of the conference "would lend credibility to the efforts by some states to single out Israel for criticism ... and distract from the very real problems of state-sponsored racism in their own countries.'

I am going out for pizza.'