In a speech he gave on Palm Sunday in 2016, Georgia Democratic senatorial candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Wallace infamously stated in his inaugural address after being elected governor of Alabama in 1963, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.” Warnock said of Netanyahu that he implied in his statements, “occupation today, occupation tomorrow, occupation forever.”
In the Palm Sunday sermon, Warnock attacked Netanyahu, calling him “racist and vicious,” while citing the oft-stated myth that the Palestinian birth rate would dwarf the Jews’ birth rate in Israel and thus render the Jewish state obsolete. (For an explanation of the comparative birth rates, see here, here, and here.)
Warnock declared on Palm Sunday:
Who is this young man? He is young Israeli children and young Palestinian children. In a land of violence and bloodshed and occupation, caught in the crossfire, casualties of the games that powerful people play.
I heard a very clever politician running for reelection as prime minister suddenly announce “no two state solution.”
Some of you acting like you didn’t understand the magnitude of what he just said. That’s tantamount to saying “occupation today, occupation tomorrow, occupation forever.” Why? Because when you look at the demographic trends, the Arabs will outnumber the Jews. And so if you don’t have a Palestinian state, you cannot have a Jewish democracy. The state will either be Jewish or it will be a democracy. It cannot be both if you do not have a Palestinian state, you will have to have apartheid in Israel that denies other citizens, sisters and brothers citizenship. Or you will have a democracy that is not a Jewish state.
All the clever politicians say, “You better get to the polls the Arabs are coming.” Kind of racist and vicious language that betrays the legacy of Micah and Amos and Isaiah who said, “Let justice run down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Betrays the legacy of Micah who has said, “He has shown you, O man what is good and what does God require but that you do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God,” while powerful people play games, palms, who happen to be people, are suffering in the middle while the elephants fight. The grass suffers.
During his 2015 Palm Sunday Sermon, Dem. Raphael Warnock explicitly called Israel an “Apartheid” State, describing it as “a land of violence and bloodshed and occupation” and he referred to Israeli leaders as “clever politicians,” and accusing them of being “racist and vicious.” pic.twitter.com/jfdkOUzung
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) December 10, 2020
The Republican Jewish Coalition responded to the report of Warnock’s 2016 sermon. RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks stated:
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.