Raphael Warnock drops Palestinian rights in bid for US Senate

Michael F. Brown Power Suits 19 November 2020

Man adjusts his eyeglasses

Democrat Raphael Warnock will face Republican Kelly Loeffler in a January runoff election in Georgia for the US Senate.

Tom Williams CQ Roll Call

US Senate candidate Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, is appealing to the fears and simmering hatreds of some white people in Georgia. She intends to paint her Democratic rival, Rev. Raphael Warnock, as an anti-Israel and Black Lives Matter extremist.

Loeffler, who was challenged this year over possible financial misconduct, has lambasted the Black Lives Matter movement and has promoted an interview she did with Jack Posobiec, a journalist the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has described as “associated with white supremacy and Nazism.”

She also recently tweeted that her January runoff opponent “has a long history of anti-Israel extremism,” has “embraced the anti-Zionist BLM organization,” and “thinks Israel is an ‘oppressive regime’ for fighting back against terrorism.”
In response, rather than cite her interview dalliance with white supremacy associate Posobiec, Warnock is racing away from human rights positions he had staked out on Palestine prior to his run against Loeffler.

Yes, the senior pastor at the same Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta at which Martin Luther King Jr. preached is much stronger than Loeffler on broader issues of racial and social justice, but he has quickly shown that when challenged he is unwilling to stand up for Palestinian rights.

The stakes here are high in the context of the incoming Joe Biden administration and for both US domestic and foreign policy.

Democrat Jon Ossoff is running against Republican David Perdue in the other US Senate runoff race in the state. Democrats have to win both seats to control the US Senate – with Kamala Harris, currently the Vice President-elect, providing the potential tie-breaking vote.

Should they manage a double victory in Georgia, Democrats will control Congress as well as the White House. Such an outcome should allow them to pursue a domestic agenda much more successfully than if Republicans manage to hold on to a majority in the Senate.

Coalition-busting

If, however, the Democrats intend to build a diverse coalition that includes Palestinian Americans then Palestinians can’t simply be abandoned as a weak link for not being demographically prominent. Either Israeli apartheid and the denial of equal rights is a problem or it isn’t. It can’t simply be a problem until a right-wing and bigoted Republican candidate employs demagogic language against a Democrat.

Warnock came under fire this month after Jewish Insider revealed that he signed a National Council of Churches letter describing a trip to “Israel and Palestine” in which Palestinian rights are upheld, including those of refugees.

The participants included letter signers who referred to themselves as “descendants of those who survived slavery, Jim Crow and who work now to dismantle the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration and militarization of police in our communities.”

The letter cited “patterns that seem to have been borrowed and perfected from other previous oppressive regimes” such as “ever-present physical walls that wall in Palestinians,” “heavy militarization of the West Bank, reminiscent of the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa,” and “laws of segregation that allow one thing for the Jewish people and another for the Palestinians.”

But Warnock now appears to be afraid of losing electorally and is ready to walk back his views on Palestinian rights and freedom.

Rather than challenge Loeffler for attacking Palestinian aspirations and for red-baiting attacks on Black Lives Matter similar to attacks in the 1960s on King and other civil rights activists, Warnock is currently saying that he “strongly oppose[s]” the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and “its anti-Semitic underpinnings, including its supporters’ refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.”

This is a false claim. BDS does not take a position one way or another on two states or one as Ali Abunimah has noted. BDS doesn’t reject Israel’s right to exist, but rather rejects Israel as an apartheid state denying equal rights to Palestinians.

Additionally, his vitriolic attack on the BDS movement – which aims to end the Israeli occupation, secure equal rights for Palestinians living in Israel, and uphold the right of return for Palestinian refugees – raises the question: Has he ever read Omar Barghouti or George Bisharat on BDS?

Has he ever grappled with the thoughts of Jewish Voice for Peace on BDS or given a careful read of the BDS movement’s strong opposition to all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism?

Or is it simply politically expedient in his attempted march to the US Senate for him to say everybody has a First Amendment right to boycott their oppressors, but when Palestinians do it’s anti-Semitic? He’s showing that he’s unwilling to lift while he moves toward a vital US Senate seat. Instead, Palestinians are disposable and can be stepped on in reaching his personal goals.

This isn’t leadership but capitulation to right-wing bigotry and the worst impulses in the Democratic Party. It’s profoundly depressing because Warnock seemingly knew better when not running for office – though his attendance at last year’s AIPAC policy conference does suggest an openness to conservative views defending Israel’s long-running subjugation of Palestinians – and because Loeffler is a danger to both Palestinians and African Americans.

It’s a discouraging calculation by Warnock that equal rights for Palestinians are far less of a consideration for voters in Georgia than upholding standard Democratic positions providing copious amounts of military aid to Israel.

In a new op-ed published by Jewish Insider titled “I stand with Israel,” Warnock writes that he supports a two-state solution and self-determination for Palestinians, but says he also supports President Barack Obama’s $38 billion in military aid to Israel over 10 years and agrees with President-elect Biden that “placing conditions on our assistance would be a mistake.”

In other words, no Israeli human rights violation or annexation of the West Bank would lead him to reconsider military aid to Israel.

Warnock also now says he does not believe Israel is an apartheid state.

The Georgia Democrat wasn’t expected to write op-eds titled “I stand with the Confederacy” or “I stand with the National Rifle Association” to placate white QAnon voters in his home state. (Loeffler has notably campaigned with Marjorie Taylor Greene, who earlier this month was elected to the US House of Representatives despite being an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory that has anti-Semitic roots and promotes wild claims of pedophilia within the Democratic Party.)

Yet Palestinians, as is too often the case with Democratic politicians, are readily marginalized in a desperate bid to curry favor with Georgia’s larger body of white evangelical voters.

It won’t work. Loeffler, like President Donald Trump, has that demographic significantly sewn up, notwithstanding Rev. Warnock’s hope that he can connect with white evangelicals and win their votes.

And Warnock is wrong if he thinks that his revised stance will influence Georgia’s much smaller community of Jewish voters. They will be well aware of the white supremacy machinations of Loeffler and Trump. If concern about the racism exhibited by Loeffler and Trump doesn’t lead Jewish voters to cast ballots for Warnock then running away from equal rights for Palestinians certainly won’t do the job either.

As recently as four years ago 71 percent of Jewish voters in Georgia supported Hillary Clinton while only about a quarter went for Trump.

This year, early estimates in the state put Trump even with Biden at 49 percent each of Jewish voters – a move toward Trump that I find difficult to believe at this early juncture. And, in fact, methodological concerns have been raised with me about how the Georgia figure was reached.

But the possible shift will surely alarm Warnock’s advisers as Trump is every bit as racist as Loeffler.

This week Loeffler was one of four Republican champions of Israeli settler-colonialism to sign a letter to Trump calling for him “to change US customs policy and guidelines to allow Israeli goods produced in Judea and Samaria to be labeled ‘Made in Israel.’” American zealots for Israel have taken to displaying their fervent commitment to Israel by referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.”

A strong case can be made that Loeffler is both anti-Palestinian and giving comfort to a white supremacist journalist with Nazi associations.

Warnock, if serious about equal rights for all people, should have the courage to assert such facts.

Instead, he is sending the signal that he doesn’t truly believe in anything and that his concern in a 2018 sermon that “Palestinian lives matter” are simply empty words.

The non-politician Warnock, the presumably authentic Warnock, is transforming before our eyes into a politician who claims that if you stand up for Palestinian lives and rights and take action to secure Palestinian freedom through BDS that you are engaged in anti-Semitism.

This isn’t leadership. It’s Democratic business as usual. It doesn’t teach about the reality of what Palestinians face and should cause key parts of the Democratic base to question what else and who else Warnock is willing to jettison.

Warnock’s abandonment of Palestinian rights is made all the more painful by the fact that Democrats in Georgia have nowhere else to go as Loeffler is even more stridently against Palestinian rights. Warnock should have provided Democrats a consistent voice. Now we don’t know when or how he’ll compromise his beliefs next.

Yes, I get it that until recently Georgia was a reliably conservative state and that the Senate is at stake in the two Georgia US Senate runoff elections. But people also want politicians who have well-considered principles and won’t abandon those viewpoints just because they’re now in the political arena. Would-be progressives should stand for something and not just give the impression they’ll reverse themselves for a vote.

I always disliked it when Republicans said of Senator Jesse Helms, “Well, at least you know where he stands.” Yes, you did, but it was an outrageous defense because invariably Helms was standing against equal rights.

For those Georgians who follow these matters, however, it’s now unclear whether Warnock actually believes in equal rights for Palestinians. And, if he does support Palestinian equal rights in word, he’s signaled that indeed he opposes BDS and cutting military aid as a means to secure those rights.

His inconsistency can’t be good for his candidacy even when facing a weak and corrupt politician who thinks she’s helped by hobnobbing with a journalist tied to white supremacy and Nazism.

Warnock remains the superior candidate, but this sort of embrace of apartheid Israel and abandonment of Palestinian rights is getting old and won’t sit well with a part of his constituency.

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Comments

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Eric replied on

No doubt Clinton and the DNC establishment leaned heavily on Warnock,
in addition to AIPAC, J Street, etc. No doubt campaign money was a bargaining chip
-- even though he has a strong hand because the Dems need him to win.

I predict that Warnock's capitulation to appease the Zionist lobby will be as successful
as Jeremy Corbyn's was.

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Liz Aaronsohn replied on

I am so disappointed that he has taken this stand. It's like Obama in 2008, throwing his pastor under the bus in order to woo voters who can't stand to hear the truth about America. If I were in Georgia, I would vote for him anyway, because his opponent is significantly worse, and because I have to hope we can educate him. I feel the same way about my own Congresswoman in CT, who accepted the AIPAC trip to Israel in her first term, and swallows the dominant attitude about US support of Israel that Rev. Warnock is representing here. We have work to do!!!

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tom hall replied on

You can gauge a candidate's sincerity when extolling a host of progressive figures and causes, by how that candidate responds to the Palestinian call for justice. The cause of Palestine is the touchstone of our age. Politicians can get away with paying lip service to community action, public healthcare, ending incarceration, defunding racist police forces, even nationalizing banks and bringing home the troops. But no one is in any doubt that speaking out for the victims of Israeli apartheid constitutes a fundamental violation of the rules and is punishable in every possible way.

This man wants to get elected, and he's willing to give the one pledge that matters to the donor class and his party superiors- turning his back not only on the Palestinians but in a real sense on whatever in himself was worthy of support. If he'll betray Palestine, he'll betray any cause he tells you today he holds sacred. I'd say he's in the right party for that kind of flexibility.

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john m costello replied on

Do any of these ivory tower judges have any idea how important, to the fate of the entire planet including Pals, it is that the Senate turns? Come on, we managed to get over the Green's holier than thou this time but you're still not really getting the fact that priorities form in a line because some things have to happen first, so that there's a chance for a second. Please grow up, I'm begging you.

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tom hall replied on

I don't know whether you've noticed, but this site is dedicated to the cause of Palestinian rights, not the fortunes of the Democratic Party. The latter has twisted, scorned, vilified and crushed Palestinian hopes at every turn. That you feel morally empowered to demand support from those of us your party condemns as anti-Semites and worse is simply grotesque. This is a street level issue for us, not as you insultingly term it, "ivory tower". And down here where it counts, we know what to expect from the Democratic Party. You're speaking to people who face smears, blacklisting, police monitoring, expulsion from university, job losses and potential jail time, and you're telling them to put all that aside in the name of a spurious and sanctimonious "realism".

And by the way, would you mind not calling Palestinians "Pals"? It's just insulting.

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john m costello replied on

Tom, perhaps you don’t think your crusade for Palestinian rights depends of the future of the Democratic Party but I most definitely do. And I’m not satisfied with checking in and out of this intellectual hostel for wayfaring quixotics, I want to save the world. And “Pals”, is an abbreviation used in less austere chat rooms, which I used intentionally, knowing it would elicit a petty rebuke, exactly with the purpose of rankling the pompous.
I hope that in the midst of the multitude of injustices you’re suffering you will consider that the pogroms of the far left on Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton did little to promote the Palestinian cause and that divorcing US politics from the struggle for human rights is fine for rich white people who have only to purify their views, in order to justify their privilege. And I understand too well that the Dem (sorry) Party has been pivotal in the Zionist evolution of Israel and persecution of the Palestinian People (there!) but there are signs of real change there and for it to be realized, demagogic leveraging of the outrage of 73 million idiot voters has to be limited as much as possible. To say nothing of the fact that there are issues of existential consequence that rely on shifting the world away from nationalism trans fascism. I'm here with you exactly because I do believe that our support of Zionism, over the rights of the Palestinians is abhorrent yes but critical is the fact that we hold it over the law and especially law that has come at so great a cost and will be our only hope.
Warnock is a good man, who’s taking good advice, in order to gain a position where he can do some good and I’m not insulted that he’s asking me to chill for a little while to accomplish that end. But I’m afraid I do have to admit that I don’t hold Pals in any higher regard than anyone else and that I understand that makes me an outlier here. I encountered a similar reaction in a JP chat room, when I disclosed I was a Gentile.

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john m costello replied on

For anyone who is deeply concerned that 4 years of Trump may already have pushed this planet over the climate threshold. And that another 2 (at least) of McConnell hamstringing Dems on that and every progressive issue, may be the final nail in our collective coffin, I urge employment of empathy and perspective on Warnock's assuming the position he has in his do or die race.
I agree with Eric's above post but urge that knowing Georgia's voters is important at this juncture. Sometimes we have to trust leadership, especially at critical moments. I don't think Tom's condemnation of Warnock matters, if anything he'd make a good reverse negative ad for Warnock. I'm just tired of the pontifications of those on the left who place little value on winning, especially when losing has proved so disasterous in the past and promises things unimaginably worse in the future.
Here's s local perspective on Warnock's tough position; https://atlantajewishtimes.tim...

Michael F. Brown

Michael F. Brown is an independent journalist. His work and views have appeared in The International Herald Tribune, TheNation.com, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The News & Observer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Post and elsewhere.