Jake Tapper provides a comprehensive report on the Mary Robinson award, detailing her involvement at Durban and criticism from the Jewish community “over perceptions of her lack of even-handedness regarding Israel” on not just Durban but on Jenin as well. In addition to the ADL objection to the award earlier on Monday, Tapper catches up with the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations:

Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told ABC News that he agreed with [ADL National Director Abe] Foxman’s assessment of Robinson’s past behavior but added that his organization had yet to decide whether it would formally protest Robinson being honored by the President.

Not clear why it’s so hard to decide whether a “formal” protest will be made if in fact Hoenlein agrees with Foxman’s assessment. But what is clear is that the White House blew it — failing to appreciate the reaction that Robinson’s award would generate and underestimating the degree to which she is a toxic figure in the Jewish community.

And if that weren’t bad enough, we learn that Robinson is joining fellow Medal of Freedom nominee Desmond Tutu (who has advocated divestment in Israel) and Jimmy Carter for a tour of Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. One can only imagine the travel journal they will come back with.

It seems the Obama administration won’t succeed in its effort to just make this whole mess go away. The central question remains: what were they thinking?

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 7:16 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.