Breitbart reports on a letter from the Coalition of Jewish Values denouncing Senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric:
[The Coalition for Jewish Values], which represents “over 1500 traditional rabbis in matters of public policy,” also accused liberal Jews from the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) of trying to “whitewash” Warnock’s views by circulating a petition claiming that he was the victim of “baseless claims and attacks.”
In a letter to the JDCA, whose signatories included two rabbis from Georgia, the Coalition addressed a recent JDCA meeting at which Warnock had been given an opportunity to explain his views to the Jewish community.
The traditional rabbis said that they were “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.'”
… In a press statement, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) thanked the rabbis for speaking out.
RJC executive director Matt Brooks said: “We applaud and thank Rabbi Ilan Feldman of Atlanta and Rabbi Avigdor Slatus of Savannah for honestly and fearlessly speaking out about the antisemitic statements of Senate candidate Raphael Warnock. … Their voices should be heard, and their concerns should be taken seriously by every Georgia voter.”
RJC members in Georgia are not just knocking on doors and making phone calls; they’re also publicly expressing their concerns about Raphael Warnock in Jewish media outlets. RJC member Lowell Fine wrote to the Atlanta Jewish Times to say:
There are actually two Warnocks: the one before he ran for office and the one now wanting to be senator.
In 2018, he repeatedly bashed Israel from his pulpit telling lies about her, and he signed a National Council of Churches of Christ statement in 2019 calling for an end to arms sales to Israel. In particular, that statement called for the U.S. to reconsider its $38 billion military aid package to Israel.
In a letter to the editor of the Forward, RJC member Jay Starkman wrote:
My wife and I are children of concentration camp survivors. We are deeply disturbed that many Jews don’t take U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock at his word. His rhetoric is dangerous to Jewish interests.
… Warnock has given anti-Israel sermons, saying in one, “We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey.” And echoing Palestinian leaders Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat and Fatah publications, Warnock has called Jesus “a poor Palestinian prophet,” a view which seems to deny the Jewish people’s connection to the Holy Land. Last year, Warnock even signed a letter comparing the West Bank to apartheid South Africa.
