<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_8907" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_8908">Interesting that nobody else from the "progressive community" has stepped up to publicly defend Ammons/Bennett "non voting" against apartheid in the News-Gazette. Given the pathetic nature of Gehrig's apology, one can see why. There are many who call themselves progressive, but few who would so blatantly reveal their shallowness. Moreover, more and more people are genuinely appalled by Israel's savagery, with U.S. support.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_9449"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_9448"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_9447">Crackpots deserve each other; nobody ever cared about Holocaust denial, until Deborah Lipstadt made a name for herself with the Jewish establishment for writing a pretty silly book about it, obviously vastly exaggerating its influence, all a part of what Norman Finkelstein came to call the "Holocaust Industry." It's easy duty, even gets you an endowed chair; plus it's Gehrig's favorite book of all time. Nobody cares about Steve Francis's obsessions, except for David Gehrig. They are both conspiracists of a sort, employing the "paranoid style." It's a good way to avoid having a critical thought process while pretending that you do. I'll take a good honest Tea Party crackpot anytime.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_9961"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_11573"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_11572">Meanwhile Israel massacred 2,000 Palestinians last summer, and the beat goes on in Gaza and on the West Bank. One local consequence is a blatant attack on academic freedom that shocked even some local liberal Zionists. But not Gehrig; he rails against Salaita, even ridiculing him for his speech disability, under the handle "spangwurfelt" in the News-Gazette comments section. </span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_10881"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_11571"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_11570">Gehrig barely, vaguely, almost secretively hints that he might actually be opposed to Netanyahu. How so? Well, the same way Cary Nelson does. Claim that you support the 2-state solution, don't lift a finger to oppose the occupation or USFP and support for Israel, and go back to slandering BDS and those who, whatever their disagreements, make a sincere effort to organize in opposition to US/Israel crimes. The occupation is allegedly supposed to end because liberal American Zionists hope and pray that Jewish Israelis (living in an ethnocracy of their own) will somehow see the light. But "the language of force" has characterized Israel since its inception, regardless of the ruling party. Sound familiar? It's good cop-bad cop. It's USFP writ small.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_17892"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18003" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18002">When AWARE was formed, incorporating Israel/Palestine into the anti-war analysis was just achieving some critical mass, both locally and nationally; but in the wake of the 2nd intifada, the truth could no longer be denied. The context has radically changed even since then, for the better, in terms of consciousness. But Gehrig has his Alamo, and he's sticking to it. He's the Davey Crockett of PEP.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_12173"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_12172"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_12171">PEP, progressive except for Palestine. But with Gehrig, "progressive" is utterly meaningless in practical terms beyond identity politics; not even the beginning of an insight, not even the hope of an analysis. Just accusations, vendettas, hatreds, gotchas, and pretentious attempts at clever turns of phrase. How sad and pathetic, just like the column he wrote when leaving town when he aired his <a id="ms__id10003" href="http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/2014-09-21/farewell-c-u-and-thanks-most-memories.html">personal relationship grievances</a>. </span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15088"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15205" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15204">Gehrig sits in Bethesda, like Glenn Close in the bathtub in Fatal Attraction, just waiting to rise up and strike. But at least in his case it's somewhat comical; somewhat.</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18684" dir="ltr"><span></span><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18685" dir="ltr"><span>DG</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_14798"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_14797"><span></span><br></div><br><div></div> <br><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_16094"><br><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15050" style="display: block;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15049" style="font-family: garamond, new york, times, serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15048" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18687" dir="ltr"> <font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18686" face="Arial" size="2"> On Sunday, August 30, 2015 8:34 AM, C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net> wrote:<br> </font> </div> <blockquote id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15047" style="padding-left: 5px; margin-top: 5px; margin-left: 5px; border-left-color: rgb(16, 16, 255); border-left-width: 2px; border-left-style: solid;"> <br><br> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15046"><div id="yiv3299116796"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15045">David Gehrig, who used to amuse us all as an ‘alderman’ in Urbana (he writes now from where my family used to live, in Bethesda, Maryland - the name means ‘house of mercy’) has a riotous letter (even the headline is funny) in this morning’s N-G, about (among other things) how we in AWARE have failed to police our listserv to suppress uncivil animadversions. This is America - censors better not fall down on the job.<div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18918"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15087">Unfortunately, unadulterated enjoyment of David’s wit isn’t possible, because he’s writing finally in defense of crimes for which 'our' government is responsible, viz. Israeli apartheid - worse, in the territories illegally occupied (with US support) by Israel, than apartheid in South Africa was. </div><div class="yiv3299116796"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18919">The issue is alive in C-U because of the propaganda efforts of the Israeli government and its lobby in the US. They have caused the state university to violate academic freedom and the state legislate to vote for apartheid (which of course it would not have done in regard to South Africa). The US government supports Israel primarily because Israel is a 'stationary aircraft carrier’ for US depredations in the Mideast - i.e., what AWARE was set up almost 14 years ago to protest. </div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_18920"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div><div class="yiv3299116796">Israeli propaganda (and David’s special pleading) are designed to mislead, if possible, even the elected. And it proved all too possible in regard to our local members of the legislature Bennett and Ammons, Democrats who refused to vote against using state money to support Israel’s suppression of the Palestinians. In these Orwellian days, slavish subservience is to the News-Gazette “independence of thought.”</div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15086"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div><div class="yiv3299116796">—CGE</div><div class="yiv3299116796"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15044"><div class="yiv3299116796container" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15083" style="width: 1170px; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto;"><div class="yiv3299116796col-md-5 yiv3299116796headerLeft" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15082" style="width: 475px; text-align: center; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; float: left; min-height: 1px;"><div class="yiv3299116796brand yiv3299116796navbar-brand" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15081" style="padding: 15px; height: 50px; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 20px; margin-left: 0px; float: left;"><a title="Home" class="yiv3299116796" id="yiv3299116796logo" style="background: 0px 0px; 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font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-size: 2.5em; border-top-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); border-top-width: 9px; border-top-style: solid;">Sunday Extra: Ammons demonstrates independence of thought</h1><div class="yiv3299116796clear-block" id="yiv3299116796content-content"><div class="yiv3299116796col-md-12" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15042" style="width: 710px; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; float: left; min-height: 1px;"><div class="yiv3299116796node" id="yiv3299116796node-1384347"><form class="yiv3299116796" id="yiv3299116796bookmark" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank"></form><span class="yiv3299116796submitted" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15079" style="font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><div class="yiv3299116796submitted" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15078" style="margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px;"><span class="yiv3299116796timestamp">Sun, 08/30/2015 - 7:00am</span> | <span class="yiv3299116796authors"><a class="yiv3299116796" style="background-position: 0px 0px; 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color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>By David Gehrig</div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15039" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>It's a little amazing to me that anybody would take Illinois' most intractable quandary, the state pension system, and somehow manage to tie it to a problem even more intractable, peace in the Mideast. When peace finally comes between Israel and the Palestinians, you can guarantee that nobody is going to walk up to the podium in Jerusalem (or wherever) and say: "We owe it all to Illinois pension laws. Thank you, Springfield!"</div><div class="yiv3299116796" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>It's worth mentioning that Carol Ammons was one of only two present House members who didn't vote yes (the other being Silvana Tabares). Withholding a no vote offended a few local Green Party litmus testers on the anti-Israel side. But recognize that going with the flow and voting yes would have been cake; instead, Carol demonstrated the independence of thought that I admire her (and supported her) for.</div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15073" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>I don't support the BDS movement, which is fundamentally rooted in what I believe is a misplaced but highly emotive historical analogy and which is therefore doomed to perennially bark up the wrong tree — spinning its wheels while strengthening, rather than weakening, Netanyahu's hand in the process.</div><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1440943645185_15074" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>But there's something else that should be pointed out about Ammons's critics on the vote. One of the complaining letters to the N-G was from local "truther" Steve Francis, an unabashed Holocaust denier and conspiracy crank who twice brought a gang of tinfoil merchants to town for "conferences" on how the Nazi gas chambers were made up by the Zionists, the Mossad killed JFK, and Israel staged 9/11. Another letter was from Carl Estabrook, an otherwise nice and intelligent guy who inexplicably let Francis fill AWARE's "anti-racist" mailing list again and again with Holocaust-denying sludge without making the slightest effort to refute him, a truly ugly sin of omission. The third was from David Green, who is ... well, enough said there.</div><div class="yiv3299116796" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>Can anyone believe Francis is acting in good faith when discussing Israel? Of course not. And every instance of Estabrook and Green ignoring Francis's anti-Jewish ravings — while continuing to distribute them on the AWARE list — is another blot on their less than shining armor, and another ding on the nameplate of AWARE.</div><div class="yiv3299116796" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'>If Carol has lost the vote of a Holocaust denier and a couple of his enablers, it's hard for me to feel bad about that, and she shouldn't either.</div><div class="yiv3299116796" style='margin: 0px 0px 1.2em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 17px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'><br class="yiv3299116796webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="yiv3299116796insertAdRight" style="margin: 10px; clear: both; float: right;"><div class="yiv3299116796" id="yiv3299116796div-gpt-ad-1392329065879-20" style="margin: 0px auto; width: 300px; height: 250px; text-align: center;"><div class="yiv3299116796" style="border: 0pt currentColor; border-image: none;"></div></div></div><em class="yiv3299116796">David Gehrig, a former Urbana alderman, resides in Bethesda, Md.</em><div class="yiv3299116796"><br class="yiv3299116796webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv3299116796"><br class="yiv3299116796"></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>Peace-discuss mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" ymailto="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a><br><a href="https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss" target="_blank">https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss</a><br><br><br></div> </blockquote> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>