<div dir="ltr">The News-Gazette recently published an article about <b>Bend the Arc vs. "white nationalism:</b> 

<a href="https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html">https://www.news-gazette.com/news/chicago-teacher-nazi-expert-to-lead-bend-the-arc-event/article_5772a027-b6cf-574c-b078-83919e382c7d.html</a><div><br></div><div><b>This morning the News-Gazette published this: </b></div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail-article_head0" style="margin:0.4em 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><p class="gmail-uptitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.2em;line-height:1.1em"><span class="gmail-Fid_14" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">ANTI-SEMITISM</span></p><p class="gmail-maintitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(154,61,61);line-height:1.1em"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal;font-weight:bold">Jewish group pushes Davis to condemn Trump</span></p></div><div class="gmail-article_body0" style="margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-first gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">By PAUL WOOD</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_12" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"><a target="_blank" href="mailto:pwood@news-gazette.com" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(0,0,255)">pwood@news-gazette.com</a></span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_13" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">CHAMPAIGN — A progressive Jewish organization rallied outside U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis’s office Friday to demand that the Taylorville Republican speak out about the president’s statement that Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal to the country. Later, Davis did, through a spokesman.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_13" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Main speaker Diane Ore of Champaign said the group Bend the Arc asked Davis to denounce Donald Trump for the statement that says such voting “shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Please see GROUP, B-3</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-last gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><div id="gmail-imgArt0" class="gmail-imgArt gmail-dontsplit" style="margin:15px 0px 0px;padding:0px;display:inline-block;text-align:center;max-width:90%"><img src="http://us6lb-cdn.newsmemory.com/eebrowser/ipad/html5.check.2500/ajax-request.php?val=Image_14.jpg&action=loadImage&type=Image&pSetup=champaignnewsgazette&issue=20190824&crc=0824_b01_w-or9.pdf.0&edition=Champaign%20News-Gazette&mtime=064952&paperImage=champaignnewsgazette" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; max-width: 90%;"><img id="gmail-imgchild_0" class="gmail-imgchild" src="http://news-gazette.il.newsmemory.com/eebrowser/ipad/html5.check.2500/code/icons/usa/zoom_in.png" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-radius: 20px; right: 0px;"></div><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_17" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Linda Yoakum, congressional aide to U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, left, speaks with Marci Adelston-Schafer of Bend the Arc outside the Taylorville Republican’s Champaign office Friday.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Paul</span><span class="gmail-Fid_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> Wood/The</span><span class="gmail-Fid_11" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> News-Gazette</span></p><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></div></div><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px;clear:both"></div><hr class="gmail-hr0" style="margin:0.8em 0px;padding:0px;width:808.991px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-article_head1" style="margin:0.4em 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"></div><div class="gmail-article_body1" style="margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-first gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding1" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-maintitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(154,61,61);line-height:1.1em"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal;font-weight:bold">GROUP</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_8" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Continued from B-<a style="margin:0px;padding:0px;color:blue"><b style="margin:0px;padding:0px">1</b></a></span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“Well, I’m a proud Jew and here’s what I know,” said Ore, the chairwoman of Bend The Arc CU. “Claiming Jews are disloyal — that we are not full Americans — is a centuries-old anti-Semitic trope designed to isolate and endanger Jewish people.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Hours later, Davis’ spokeswoman Ashley Phelps responded to the protesters.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“Congressman Davis has urged the president to tone down the rhetoric, tweet less and govern more,” she said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“At the same time, this is the same group who organized a protest outside our Open Government Night, where one person had a sign that mocked the congressman being shot at, and inside many shouted that they agree with Bernie Sanders that Republican policies kill people. Congressman Davis continues to encourage both sides to tone down the rhetoric.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">A dozen demonstrators were at the noon rally speaking out at the president’s</span><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> words.</span><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> “In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters in a different statement Wednesday, “and only weak people would say anything other than that.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Ore said she’s concerned</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-last gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding1 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody gmail-split" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">that repeating such comments motivates mass shootings.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“Beginning with Charlottesville, when Donald Trump said there were very fine people on both sides, Rodney Davis kept silent,” she said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">She said Davis should speak out about Trump, “not for his tweeting practice, but for making our democratic home feel more like Nazi Germany than the United States of America, to which we have always pledged and will always pledge our allegiance, regardless of its leadership.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“We demand that you support common sense gun laws that will remove the murder weapons from the hands of our assailants,” she added.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">She said that Jews in his district deserve all the rights of his constituents.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Bend The Arc member Terry Maher agreed with Ore that white nationalists are a particular concern.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Anti-Semitism “has been going on since Biblical times. White nationalists are part of this history, and the danger is all over the country, including here.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">As an example, she referred to an outdoors menorah statue on the University of Illinois campus that was vandalized three times in 10 months in recent years.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“This isn’t hijinks,” Maher said</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><b style="font-size:1em"><br></b></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><b style="font-size:1em">Below is my submitted response to the first article, but could include the second article as well:</b></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><b style="font-size:1em"><br></b></p><div class="gmail-article_head0" style="margin:0.4em 0px 0px;padding:0px"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">This responds to the recent article regarding
the local chapter of the Jewish “progressive” group Bend the Arc, which claims,
in its efforts to support migrants, to be opposing alleged “white nationalism”
in our community.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Regrettably, I find Bend the Arc, at national
and local levels, politically repellent on any number of counts that go beyond
self-righteous proclamations claiming to represent the moral legacy of Judaism
and Jews. At a general level, they wash their hands of concerns about U.S. imperialism,
which represents the basis for the migrant crisis they claim to address.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">They pointedly avoid addressing the convolutedly
perverse relationships among “white nationalism” and Jewish nationalism
(Zionism), the racist manifestations of which have pervaded Jewish-American
institutions (and academia) for over a half-century. Concretely, they demonize
Donald Trump while avoiding criticism of his (and their own) rabid support for
Israeli occupation and apartheid, support shared by the leadership of both parties.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Indeed, they are unaware that the notion of a
“great replacement” of white people is partly rooted in the Islamophobic views
of a Jewish-European woman, Bat Ye’or: a fake historian, rabid conspiracy
theorist, and author of <i>Eurabia </i>(2005). They are unaware that her views
are rooted in her previous Zionist propaganda regarding the historical status
of Jews in the Arab and Muslim worlds, propaganda weaponized to retroactively
justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.</p><p class="gmail-uptitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.2em;line-height:1.1em">







</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The transparent agenda of Bend the Arc is to
support whomever the Democratic Party nominates, however Zionist, militarist,
or imperialist. As “progress,” that simply won’t do.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0.1in 0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">David Green</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>