• Omri Nahmias at the Jerusalem Post
reports
on the RJC’s strong public statement blasting the Democrat candidates
for Senate in Georgia, Raphael Warnock and
Jon Ossoff:
Matt Brooks, Executive Director for RJC, said
in a statement that the two campaigned “with anti-Israel Democrat
Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA-4).”
“Hank Johnson, Jon Ossoff’s mentor and former boss, enjoys
referring to Israelis as ‘termites,’” said Brooks. “He used the phrase
when speaking to the group called Campaign to End the Israeli
Occupation – a group that supports the antisemitic BDS movement. That
Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff rely on Johnson to boost their
campaigns is a direct endorsement of Johnson’s bigoted statements
about the citizens of the only Jewish country in the world.”
…“Jon Ossoff certainly knows what Johnson has said about Jews
from Israel, and Raphael Warnock either knows, or is being
purposefully ignorant,” Brooks added. “Today it became even more clear
that they will stand with the large anti-Israel contingent of the
Democrat Party, ensuring that they will not stand with our Jewish
brothers and sisters in Israel.”
• The Atlanta Jewish Times reported on the Jewish
community’s involvement in the Georgia Senate runoff races, noting the
RJC’s
recent newspaper ad there:
The RJC took out a two-page ad inside the front cover of the
Nov. 30 edition of the [Atlanta Jewish Times]. Atop the left
side was an image of an angry-looking Ossoff, tying him to “the
far-left pro-Palestinian group J Street,” and below that, a photo of
Ossoff’s “mentor,” Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson, from Georgia’s 4th
Congressional District.
“That’s right, the same Hank Johnson who called Jews living in
Israeli settlements ‘termites.’ Hank Johnson is a vile anti-Semite.
And Jon Ossoff worked for him,” the ad states.
• RJC Atlanta Chapter chairs Chuck and
Bonnie Berk wrote a letter
to the editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times after the paper
received criticism for running the RJC ad. They wrote:
It was upsetting to see the AJT receive numerous negative
posts about the ad that the Republican Jewish
Coalition placed in the last issue, and for some illogical
reason, these readers blamed this newspaper for allowing us to pay for
and place this ad.
It may not be what these disgruntled readers wanted to hear,
but we applaud the AJT for providing the opportunity to share with
readers facts, not opinions about Rev. Warnock’s checkered background.
The information about Rev. Warnock in the RJC ad were his actual
anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements and actions, footnoted and
documented. For voters to make an informed voting decision, it is
important that they are made aware of this information. And, since the
mainstream media is ignoring this side of the Reverend’s past, it took
courage for the AJT to print the ad, which demonstrates that Rev.
Warnock is, at best, deeply conflicted over Israel.
• Fox News reported
last night:
In a 2016 sermon, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat,
criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s opposition to a two-state solution for peace in
the region.
He called Netanyahu’s stance “tantamount to saying occupation
today, occupation tomorrow, occupation forever,” a line similar to
former Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s call for,
“segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.”
The RJC fired
off a “rapid response” statement this morning, which was quoted
in The Daily Wire today:
Rev. Warnock recently told a Jewish group that he supports
Israel, but he has a long history of statements that testify to the
fact that he does not. His 2016 comparison of Prime Minister Netanyahu
to segregationist George Wallace in front of an African American
audience was simple hatemongering.
Warnock claims to have recently come to understand that Hamas
is a violent enemy threatening Israel. There is a great deal more that
he needs to learn about the Palestinians’ goal of genocide and
Israel’s history of sacrificing for peace, before the Jewish community
could ever begin to trust his newly announced “support” of Israel. The
preponderance of anti-Israel statements in his past argues that he
will side with Israel’s opponents in the Democratic Party and against
Israel at every opportunity. In fact, Linda Sarsour,
a close friend of the antisemitic “Squad” in Congress, endorsed
Warnock’s comments about Netanyahu, just as “Squad” members Reps.
Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have
supported his campaign.
Warnock is the wrong choice for Georgia and for the US Senate.
Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler is a good friend of
Israel and the Jewish community, and we hope the voters of Georgia
will re-elect her to the Senate on January 5.
