January, 05 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Bend the Arc on Georgia Runoff Wins: "We Refused to Give in to Fear and Division"
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released the following statements on Wednesday in response to the Raphael Warnock's election and Jon Ossoff's apparent victory in their runoff elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia:
From Annie Fortnow of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Atlanta
"Georgia has shown once again that when we stand up for each other with kindness and decency, no matter our religion, our race, or our zipcode, we can make history.
ATLANTA
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released the following statements on Wednesday in response to the Raphael Warnock's election and Jon Ossoff's apparent victory in their runoff elections for U.S. Senate in Georgia:
From Annie Fortnow of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Atlanta
"Georgia has shown once again that when we stand up for each other with kindness and decency, no matter our religion, our race, or our zipcode, we can make history.
In November, our people power helped flip our state blue for the first time in almost 30 years. And now that shift appears to be complete, with the election of our state's first Black U.S Senator and first Jewish U.S. Senator. We refused to give in to fear and division, and we worked to elect two leaders who represent the best of Georgia: big hearts, grace under fire, who will fight for every person in our state.
Now that the voters have spoken, our new senators can take on the issues that really matter to us - tackling the COVID crisis responsibly, protecting our democracy, and making sure we all have what we need to thrive in this country no matter our background. Our job isn't over. We elected these new leaders, and now we will hold them accountable to the moral urgency of this moment."
From Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action
"In 2020, voters all over the country joined together to reject Donald Trump's politics of division and fear. And this week, Georgia voters once again reached out across lines of race, religion, and geography to reject antisemitism and white nationalism and their champions at the ballot box: David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
In this race, Republicans deliberately placed barriers to keep people from voting while spreading lies. Instead of bringing Georgia together, the Perdue and Loeffler campaigns generated fear and division which leads directly to violence against Jewish people, immigrants, Muslim people, people of color, and too many others. But we won't let selfish and self-interested politicians keep us divided and afraid.
Reverend Warnock and Jon Ossoff campaigned on the promise that this can be a country for all of us -- where all of us can thrive, no matter what we look like, how we pray, or where we come from. In Georgia and across the country we've won something even bigger than the historic elections of 2020 and 2021 -- we've won the chance to renew our democracy and build a new future together. We'll show up for each other every time one of us is targeted for our differences. And every day we will work to create a country that's truly for all of us, no exceptions."
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action played a major role in highlighting David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler's use of antisemitism and embrace of white nationalists including Loeffler's photo with a former KKK leader, Perdue's ad digitally enlarging Jon Ossoff's nose, Loeffler's history of associating with white nationalist figures, and her offensive attempts to exploit Jewish voters to attack her opponent.
Bend the Arc's campaign work in the runoffs included a phonebank/textbank program similar to our Vote Out Fear effort in 2020 strategically targeting Jewish voters in Georgia. Bend the Arc volunteers made over 110,000 contact attempts during the runoff period, and filled over 200 volunteer shifts. Bend the Arc also ran a relational turnout program in Georgia to strengthen our relationships in the local Jewish community, with members tapping into their own family and friend networks to spread positive messages encouraging Jewish voters to vote for Warnock and Ossoff.
Bend the Arc also produced a digital ad featuring Jewish leaders in Georgia speaking about their support for Warnock and Ossoff, building on a successful "Jews for Warnock" effort launched in the primary to consolidate Jewish support for Warnock.
Additionally, Bend the Arc Jewish Action PAC endorsed Warnock and Ossoff in the general election and raised $65,000 in grassroots donations for their campaigns in the runoffs, holding a virtual event with both candidates on December 21, 2020.
Bend the Arc is where progressive American Jews join together to fight for justice and equality for all. We are the only national Jewish organization focused exclusively on progressive social change in the United States.
(212) 213-2113LATEST NEWS
UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
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"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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