[Peace-discuss] Governor signs Israeli bill; not opposed by local Democrats

Sat Jul 25 10:52:03 EDT 2015

There is a need in politics for compromise and pragmatism, but it's hard to believe that failing to oppose apartheid in Palestine will be part of any such calculus. When Democrats had the run of the legislature, nothing was done to promote a long-term just tax structure, single payer healthcare, and equitable educational funding. It's hard to imagine what Ammons/Bennett acceding to the Israel Lobby would accomplish in the context of Rauner and disingenuous neoliberal Dems who can now point the finger at Rauner after dropping the ball (charitably put) during their years in office. There's no sense in avoiding the reason why we need a Green Party: the Dems are a corporate/neoliberal party. In this context, it hardly matters what Ammons/Bennett claim to want to accomplish. They are part of a system that cannot and will not promote any meaningful structural changes. If the Prairie Greens are serious, we should run candidates against them.
I think that on yesterday's edition of News from Neptune, which is or will shortly be available on Youtube and will be aired on UPTV this afternoon (Saturday) at 2, we (Carl and I) made a good faith and honest effort to discuss some of these issues in relation to local politics, media, and the Black Lives Matter movement. I will be glad to politely address concerns and criticism regarding the views expressed. In any event, I find support for well-intended individuals who work within corrupt institutions to be problematic. I find defensiveness about holding Ammons/Bennett accountable for a horrible and frankly immoal decision regarding fundamental racism to be equally problematic. Ammons/Bennett are elected officials, not cults. 
More importantly, these debates need to occur in open forums in our community; there's no reason for the progressive community to behave like the Zionist community, with its avoidance, repression, and back-channel pressures and dealings (all in passive/active promotion of racist policies that kill thousands and impoverish millions).
The following letter was submitted to the News-Gazette a few days ago, and will likely appear within a few days. Whatever the criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement that were expressed on News from Neptune yesterday, this letter represents an attempt to place SB1761 in a larger context. Again, I will gladly accept reactions to these views:
The connection between what is now called the “Black Lives Matter” movement and the movement for justice in Palestine can be traced to the aftermath of Israel’s aggressive 1967 war of choice that resulted in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza—what has come to be called Palestine. Black Power advocates at that time rightly came to see Palestine as an anti-colonialist cause.While there were undertones of anti-Semitism in some blacks’ rhetoric, accusations were exaggerated in order to deflect attention from the fundamentally racist nature of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people, both within Israel and under the occupation regime. Moreover, the slogan “from Gaza to Ferguson” appropriately characterizes relationships between American and Israeli militarism and surveillance, including the training of American police in Israel.The Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement joins the Black Lives Matter movement in non-violent resistance to state-sponsored racist oppression. It is slandered locally by privileged and liberal academics, administrators, and Zionists who feather their own narrowly professional nests while having nothing to do with movements for social justice other than perhaps a few pretty words on Martin Luther King’s birthday.It is in this context that Israel Lobby propagandists proposed legislation in Springfield that not only condemns the BDS movement, but requires foreign corporations to invest in apartheid Palestine. Remarkably, this odious business was passed without dissent, including from African-American legislators. But these individuals should have to answer not only to advocates for justice in Palestine, but to the Black Lives Matter movement.David Green

     On Saturday, July 25, 2015 5:47 AM, C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

 "News from Neptune" began in the summer of 1990 as an hour-long discussion on Saturday mornings on radio station WEFT in Champaign. That spawned a newspaper column in a C-U weekly and the online magazine CounterPunch, and a website <newsfromneptune.com>. 
In 2008, after a dispute with WEFT, I moved the program to Urbana Public Television, where it appears Fridays at 7pm (and on YouTube). 
I also anchor a weekly panel discussion by a local antiwar group, “AWARE on the Air,” cablecast on UPTV Tuesdays at 10pm (and on YouTube). 
My former radio partner, Paul Mueth, has since continued to do a program on WEFT at 10am Saturdays. —CGE

On Jul 24, 2015, at 11:17 PM, Bruce KAY <bruce.kay at homemail.com.au> wrote:
Apologies if that is not your program I hear on WEFT 90.1. It seems I misunderstood, attributing the host’s remarks to be yours.
Bruce
bruce.kay at homemail.com.au
+1 217 419 9140 (in the USA)+61 412 213 689 (in Australia)
Home address: 96 Murranji Street Hawker ACT Australia 2614Address in USA: 4018 N. Lincoln Avenue Champaign ILL USA 61822
_________________________________

On Jul 24, 2015, at 22:40, C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:
Would you say the same if they’d failed to vote against apartheid in South Africa?
(BTW, I haven’t done a radio program in years: are you sure you’re listening to others’ points of view?)
Regards, CGE

On Jul 24, 2015, at 10:21 PM, Bruce KAY <bruce.kay at homemail.com.au> wrote:
Mr Estabrook,
You are a painfully single-issue twat. You have zero political nous. You fail to understand that Scott Bennett and Carol Ammons are good representatives of Champaign Urbana despite that they are not Green Party members and despite that they do not always agree with you sir, You show no tolerance of the compromises Carol and Scott are forced to make as working politicians attempting to achieve the policies they perceive as most important for our C-U constituency. You fail to understand, let alone acknowledge the cut and thrust of state politics. You try to bask in your former glory as a past candidate, without ever grasping the real reason why you never got elected. Because you are uncompromising. You pontificate on your radio program with obnoxious opinions, consistently displaying your inability to listen to others’ points of view.
For the past few weeks I have desisted from commenting on your tirade of harassment of Carol Ammons and Scott Bennett. But you are so one-eyed that your opinions amount to harassment.
I too favor the Green Party, and support Jill Stein for President. But I don’t subscribe to your brand of hateful chauvinist aggression

Please Mr C G Estabrook, pull your head in.
Nobody wants to be harangued by your diatribe of hatred. 
Bruce
bruce.kay at homemail.com.au
+1 217 419 9140 (in the USA)+61 412 213 689 (in Australia)
Home address: 96 Murranji Street Hawker ACT Australia 2614Address in USA: 4018 N. Lincoln Avenue Champaign ILL USA 61822
_________________________________

On Jul 24, 2015, at 20:34, C. G. Estabrook <carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/new-illinois-law-does-not-make-bds-illegal
The self-styled liberals from C-U, state senator Scott Bennett and state representative Carol Ammons, refused to vote against this bill, promoted by the government of Israel. The bill supports Israeli apartheid: they would not have refused to vote against a bill supporting South African apartheid a generation ago.
—CGE

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