After a closely contested election. Georgia will hold two run-off elections to select its senators, one of which pits the incumbent Kelly Loeffler against Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor. In a 2018 sermon, Warnock accused Israel of “shoot[ing] down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey, . . . like they don’t matter at all,” adding that “Black lives matter. Palestinian lives matter.” David Harsanyi doesn’t accept the defense that these words amount to mere “criticism” of the Jewish state:
Arguing that Israel hasn’t done enough to placate Fatah, [the party that controls the Palestinian Authority], is a criticism. Arguing that Israel’s refusal to return to 1967 boundaries is misguided is a criticism. Claiming that the Jewish state goes around picking off God’s children as if “they don’t matter at all” is . . . libel. It’s the kind of rhetoric that generates the anti-Semitism unfortunately found in some corners of black communities. It is also a complete fiction.
In a 2019 letter signed by Warnock, he also decries “the conditions in which Palestinian communities live,” claiming “the heavy militarization of the West Bank” was “reminiscent” of apartheid South Africa’s treatment of Namibia.
The propensity of liberal politicians to frame every policy issue or conflict as racially motivated is a sad reality of contemporary American politics. . . . The economic destitution of Palestinians is self-perpetuated by corruption, rigidity, and radicalism. Even the Arab League is slowly abandoning their cause. The notion that a wealthy liberal nation such as Israel, which signs peace agreements with any Arab country that engages, has an interest in keeping its neighbors poor is a complete fiction. The only faction in this quarrel arguing for ethnic partition is the one demanding a Jew-free West Bank.
Read more on National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/raphael-warnocks-blood-libel/