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to Jeremiah Wright to defend him. I think that is of relevance to Georgia voters and perhaps Jewish voters. Warnock’s religious role model responded immediately after 9/11 by saying that “America’s chickens were coming home to roost.” I think that’s a difference, that’s certainly not my point of view. The other big difference is that, and this goes for Collins and Loeffler as well: Of the four top candidates, I’m the only one who shows up on Day One in Washington who can say that I’m working for the people of Georgia and only for the people of Georgia. Each of the other three is only in this race because someone put them there. And for this reason, Loeffler, Collins and Warnock will all have divided loyalty between the people of Georgia and one or two powerful patrons in Washington or Atlanta. The people of Georgia deserve something better than that. They deserve someone they know who will be there, fighting for them and for them only. Q: What part of President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel agenda do you agree with?
A: We need to be vigilant. We need to call out things as they happen. We as adults and young adults, we as parents, communicating to our children, can’t communicate a message to go through life with bowed heads. We need to call out anti-Semitism wherever it appears, and we need to encourage our children to be strong in the face of it. It’s something that’s always been with us. It’s a form of bigotry and hatred that will never go away, but that doesn’t mean that we need to allow it to fester or grow as it seems to have been and the biggest thing we can do is really calling it out. Would you support anti-BDS legislation, and what do you say to Democrats who say that such measures go against the First Amendment?
Q: What’s your reaction to Democrats and those who are for conditioning U.S. assistance to Israel? A: As those conditions have been outlined, I’m against that. I’m opposed to placing conditions on our support for Israel.
Q: Did you agree with the reimposition of sanctions and additional sanctions the Trump administration has placed on Iran? A: Generally, yes. I’m not going to say that I’m signed onto the “maximum pressure” campaign, but Iran is a dangerous rogue state and agent of instability in the region, and I don’t believe that additional sanctions – absent a follow-up effort towards renegotiation – are a good idea. But I don’t think they’re a bad idea as part of laying the groundwork for renegotiation of arms, as well as hostility between Iran and other countries. Q: But you supported the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal, correct? A: I think it was a bad deal and withdrawing from it has left the region in a better place. JEWISH LEDGER
Q: How can we best fight antisemitism, especially on college campuses?
A: I would support anti-BDS legislation. It doesn’t go against the First Amendment. It doesn’t do a darn thing to the First Amendment to say that you’re not going to support the boycott. The boycotters can still boycott. Their First Amendment rights are still intact. That doesn’t mean you need to support it.
A: I agree with the move of the embassy to Jerusalem. I agree that the nuclear deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was not a good deal, and I think that clearly the region has progressed to a place of greater stability since the U.S. withdrew from it [in May 2018]. I think the region and the world will be in a better place of greater strength than renegotiating that deal so that Iran is not able to export and finance mayhem, even if not nuclear, conventional mayhem as they had been doing aggressively since the plan was put in place. And you have to give them credit for the agreements that clearly the United States has played a big part in putting together between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain. I hope there are more.
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I have not been in the Senate, so I have not been privy to the multiple layers of intelligence that go into these decisions, but I can say in hindsight there have been positive consequences from withdrawing, yes.
Q: What’s your reaction to Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), whose re-election campaigns were endorsed by House Speaker Pelosi? A: Clearly, they could be stronger in valuing the American-Israeli relationship. Generally speaking, I think they are each proud members of the extreme left-wing of the Democratic Party. They don’t represent the mainstream of the Democratic Party nationally or in Congress. Q: Has the Democratic Party become antisemitic and anti-Israel? There’s the notion that this party is no longer your father’s party. A: The Democratic Party is not antisemitic or anti-Israel. Virtually, every vote that comes up, there are strong bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate favoring the American-Israeli alliance. Are there a handful of voices saying things that
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are of concern? Yes. I would say at this point, that is more of a warning flare than a problem. Q: What’s your reaction to Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is expected to be elected to Congress, despite her support for the QAnon conspiracy theory and for making bigoted statements?
A: There you have the extreme, extreme element in the Republican Party that the Republicans refuse to speak out against. In fact, Doug Collins and Kelly Loeffler, who I’m running against, have congratulated her on her victory. And they should be ashamed because as they endorsed her, they are also at least complicit. It’s at least an implicit endorsement of her various statements and positions that are disturbing and way out there.
Georgia Democratic Senate candidate defends antisemitic pastor Jeremiah Wright (JNS) The top Democratic candidate in the special Senate election in Georgia defended antisemitic pastor Jeremiah Wright back in 2008. Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, defended Wright after a tape emerged of a 2003 sermon called “Confusing God and Government” in which Wright said, “not God Bless America, God damn America.” The tape came to light during Barack Obama’s presidential run in 2008, as Obama was at the time a member of Wright’s church in Chicago. During the campaign, Obama disavowed the remarks and eventually withdrew his membership from the church. “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisoners, passes a threestrike law, and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America,’ ” said Wright in the sermon. “No no no, not God bless America, God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people, God damn America for treating her citizens as less than human, God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is supreme.” In a March 2008 appearance on Fox News, Warnock, who said that he had been “dispatched” to defend Wright after the tape emerged, praised the “social transformation that’s been the hallmark of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s ministry.” “We celebrate Rev. Wright in the same way that we celebrate the truth-telling tradition of the black church, which when preachers tell the truth, very often it makes people uncomfortable,” said Warnock in response to the sermon and other remarks. He also said, “I think the country has been done a disservice by this constant playing over and over again of the same soundbites outside of context.” Wright has a history of making other provocative statements, including ones that are antisemitic. Examples have included blaming “them Jews” for not being able to be in contact with Obama after he won the White House, and stating that “ethnic cleansing is going on in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing of the Zionist is a sin and a crime against humanity, and they don’t want Barack talking like that because that’s anti-
Israel.” Warnock is running in a special election to serve the remaining two years of the term of Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), against incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after Isakson retired in 2019 for health reasons. He also faces off against GOP Rep. Doug Collins and seven Democrats, including Matt Lieberman, a son of former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). In accordance with Georgia electoral law, if no candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held in January. On Nov. 3, all candidates for Isakson’s seat, regardless of partisan affiliation, will be on the ballot. According to many polls, Warnock is the Democrat most likely to advance to the expected run-off unless the January election ends up being between Loeffler and Collins – a possibility with Lieberman playing spoiler to Warnock’s chances. Otherwise, the special election would likely be between the two Georgia Republican members of Congress. As of March, Warnock stood by his defense of Wright. “Any fair-thinking person would recognize that everything a government does, even the American government, is not consistent with God’s dream for the world,” he said. “And preaching at its best points out those contradictions but then shows us the path forward.” A Warnock campaign spokesperson told Fox News that the candidate “deplores and disagrees with any kind of remark that is antisemitic or discriminates against anyone.” “He doesn’t agree with all of the positions other pastors support and has said such throughout this campaign,” said spokesperson Terrence Clark. “Rev. Warnock loves this country, and he supports honoring the dignity of all people, but also finding common ground to reform our broken systems. Once again, our opponents are playing the same Washington games to try to divide and distract people instead of standing up for health care in the middle of a pandemic.” jewishledger.com
