IL-Gov. 2018 Megathread

[Gustaf]

Yeah, I wouldn't vote for someone supporting BDS.

[Gustaf]

Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) has withdrawn his endorsement of Biss, on the basis that his LG candidate has a history of supporting BDS.

Which is really silly for a variety of reasons, but most notably that the Lieutenant Governor has no role in Middle East policymaking.......

Disgusting purity politics.

Standing up against anti-semitism is not purity politics.  It's being a decent human being.

Lol, BDS is not inherently anti-Semitic. Surely, some BDS supporters are anti-Semitic, but most are not and are simply advocating for a free Palestine and equal rights for Palestinians in Israel. A serious anti-Semite wouldn't support/recognize Israel's existence in any form.

Saying that the only people who need to be completely shut out of all human interaction are Jews is close enough to inherently anti-semitic as far as I'm concerned. But I guess the thread shouldn't be derailed by that.

[Gustaf]

Congressman Brad Schneider (IL-10) has withdrawn his endorsement of Biss, on the basis that his LG candidate has a history of supporting BDS.

Which is really silly for a variety of reasons, but most notably that the Lieutenant Governor has no role in Middle East policymaking.......

Disgusting purity politics.

Standing up against anti-semitism is not purity politics.  It's being a decent human being.

Standing up to that apartheid state of Israel is not anti-semitism.

Being anti-Israel doesn't necessarily make one anti-Semitic, but it has become the dogwhistle of choice for the anti-Semitic Left.  Also BDS is obviously a very anti-Semitic group.

Just curious, what has BDS done that was anti-Semitic? (Not challenging you. I'm very pro-Israel. Just wanna know.)

At a basic level they stand for collective punishment of all Israeli citizens for the perceived crimes of their government. Jews have always been held collectively responsible for what any members of the tribe do so it's a pretty standard anti-semitic trope and the BDS movement obviously doesn't use this as a principle in any other case. There is also a bunch of stuff coming out of their rallies and support groups and so on that is very obviously anti-semitic.

[Gustaf]

BDS supports punishing individual Israelis for the "crime" of being Israeli. The radical left has never been a reliable ally in the fight for human rights but it's important for the mainstream left to be clear about those issues. 

[Gustaf]

BDS supports punishing individual Israelis for the "crime" of being Israeli. The radical left has never been a reliable ally in the fight for human rights but it's important for the mainstream left to be clear about those issues. 

One always has to resort to baby talk on here. So step by step:

1. "Not being a reliable ally" implies that the subject is SOMETIMES an ally, but cannot be relied upon.

2. As such, the statement explicitly says that the radical left is indeed an ally at times.

3. Therefore, your response that it has been an ally in a specific situation does not contradict the statement and rather confirms it. The addition that the person was Stalinist further underlines my original point.

4. You should try and not embarrass yourself like this in the future.

[Gustaf]

The radical left has never been a reliable ally in the fight for human rights

Uh, then who are the "reliable all[ies]" of the human rights movement? I don't see how the people with the deepest-seated commitment to egalitarian principles are anything but the primary allies of the humans rights cause.

Anti-semites don't really have a deep-seated commitment to egalitarian principles.

Us liberals who actually support universal human rights are the good guys. The radical left is a good ally at times but discussions like this is a useful reminder that it can't be relied upon. Currently, the radical left cannot be relied upon to protect Jews, for example.

[Gustaf]

More "anti-Israel=antisemitic" nonsense in this thread.

I take it you didn't actually bother to read the discussion.