This week, I’ll be attending the DurbanWatch conference staged by the Hudson Institute as a counter-conference to the UN’s Durban III conference on racism.  The previous Durban conferences staged by the UN Human Rights Council inevitably turn into Israel-bashing festivals, blaming the Israelis for all of the ills of the world — while conveniently ignoring the real human-rights abuses of the UNHRC’s members, with such enlightened societies like Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, and Bahrain sitting in judgment.  DurbanWatch turns a critical eye on those states as well as the UN’s efforts to isolate Israel.  At the same time, Mahmoud Abbas is trying to get the UN to bypass Israel altogether and declare a Palestinian state in territory disputed by Israel.

It’s timely, then, that Encounter Books has just released a new Broadside titled A Century of Palestinian Rejectionism and Jew Hatred by Sol Stern.  The book reviews the long history of the disputed territory, from the Ottoman Empire to today.  Bill Whittle of Declaration Entertainment produced a longish video to accompany the book’s release, using the whiteboard animation technique to walk through the various attempts to get the Palestinians to accept a partition and a sovereign state.  It’s a must-watch primer on the various issues under debate this week, as well as an indictment of current American policy:

Be sure to keep an eye on Hot Air on Thursday as I report directly from the conference, and get some of the speakers on camera to talk about our policies in the Middle East.