 |
| Democratic candidate for 1 of the 2 Georgia senate seats, Raphael Warnock (Fox) |
However, even though I am Orthodox and lean strongly conservative, I have resisted joining the CJV (...if they would even have me. Which is far from certain). I find their seemingly unbridled support for the President troubling. Even though I mostly agree with them about the actual values of Judaism and about how favorable the Trump Presidency has been for Israel and issues important to Orthodox Jewry, I could not be a part of a group that ignores the President’s flaws. Which are not inconsequential and are substantial.
That being said, I do pretty much agree with them about the Reverend Raphael Warnock. Warnock is one of the two Democrats running in a runoff election against the two Republican incumbents. Although I favor the Republicans on conservative ideological grounds, that is not my issue with Warnock here.
It is the troubling views about the state of Israel he has expressed in the past. Which do not seem that far off from the views of congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. The last thing supporters of Israel need in the senate is someone like those two. Warnock has in the past said some pretty nasty things about Israel which could have easily been said by either of those two congresswomen - and probably have been.
He denies being anti Israel and said he would support Israel in the senate. I have to wonder about that, though. As does Rabbi Ilan Feldman of Atlanta’s Congregation Beth Jacob and Rabbi Avigdor Slatus of Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob in Savannah. Neither of whom are members of the CJV. Here is what they said in a letter they wrote to the Warnock campaign:
“We are concerned and hurt by the manner in which the Reverend brushed aside his past rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish community, and even blamed his opponents for ‘trying to use Israel as yet another wedge issue,’”
Warnock also said in a 2018 sermon that the Israeli military shot down “unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey.” That doesn’t inspire much confidence in his professed support. Neither does the following:
Warnock signed (a letter) in 2018 after a trip of international clergy to the Middle East. In the letter, the clergy compared the military presence of the West Bank to “military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.”
An objective observer that knows nothing about Israel other than these two statements would understandably be the first in line to support BDS. Which Tlaib and Omar do.
For his part, Warnock denies calling Israel an Apartheid state. I don’t think he has denied calling Israeli soldiers guilty of what amounts to being cold blooded murderers, though.
That a group of liberal rabbis has defended and supports him in their own letter does not give me much comfort. My guess is that the vast majority if not all those rabbis are not Orthodox and therefore mostly do not reflect my values.
If we are to move forward and add to the progress made recently between Israel and the Arabs, we need people with forward looking ideas. Not people looking backward to the failed polices of the past like Warnock does. If he is elected, that is one more vote in the senate making a return those failed policies a lot more likely.
Rabbi Feldman did say that he doesn’t know what is in Warnock’s heart. Neither do I. All I have to go by are his past words. Which in my view ought to make anyone that cares about the state of Israel suspect. Georgians that do care should cast their vote for his opponent even if they are not politically conservative. Kelly Loeffler will surely be more supportive the current trajectory in the Middle East that seeks to increase the number of Arab nations making peace with Israel. And a lot less likely to refer to Israeli soldiers as cold blooded murderers.