Headline in the SMH: 'Anti-racism summit poses conundrum for Rudd'.

How could Kevin Rudd possibly be in two minds about attending an anti-racism summit? I clicked the link to the story to discover why.

Ahh: Israel.

Canada has already pulled out, as a result of the outcry after the previous conference, in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. That gathering turned into a fracas over anti-Semitismas some Arab and Islamic countries urged delegates to condemn Israel as a racist state and denounce Zionism, its founding ideology, as a racist doctrine.

See, the thing is, Israel is a racist state. It is an apartheid state. Stating that fact is no more anti-semitism than condemning the white apartheid government in South Africa was anti-caucasian.

In fact, the very same day the SMH published this story, news.com.au sites were running a story titled 'Israel to build new Arab city'. Kind of like a Bantustan for Arabs, I suppose.

Really, this new 'Arab city' is a bandaid for Israel's abuse of the rights of its Arab citizens that has led to an absolutely untenable situation with regard to their (lack of) rights to obtain housing:

Why do Arab Israelis build homes without permits? Because for a group with a 3.9 percent birthrate, keeping a growing family under one original roof eventually becomes impossible. Applications by Arab Israelis for permits to build or expand are almost always denied – and moving to a Jewish neighborhood is usually impossible, either because of legal restrictions or outright discrimination against the minority.

Why does Kevin Rudd, or any Australian for that matter, need to kowtow to this wholly invented accusation of racism against anyone who criticises Israel's own racist policies? Why?