Revenge was sweet for former President Donald Trump on Election Day, with him bringing the battleground state of Georgia back into the GOP fold at the presidential level in a race that saw record turnout among Peach State voters despite false claims from the likes of Stacey Abrams and others that Georgia Republicans were “suppressing” the vote.
While there were no Senate races in Georgia this year, there will be one in 2026 featuring Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, who took office after winning the Jan. 5, 2021 runoff race against Sen. David Perdue (R), helping give Democrats control of the Senate in the process.
While Ossoff hasn’t made a lot of waves since his election, he’s got a reliably left-wing voting record on issues like abortion and LGBTQ “rights,” firmly positioning himself in the “progressive” wing of his party.
Recently, however, he rubbed Jewish leaders in Georgia the wrong way with how he voted on resolutions pushed by far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to restrict some weapon sales to Israel:
On Wednesday, Georgia lawmakers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock voted with 17 other Democratic U.S. senators in favor of a resolution led by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to block the sale of some weapons to Israel.
According to Ossoff, the failed resolution would have accounted for less than 5% of American arms that will likely flow to Israel in the next three years.
The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) released a statement on Thursday praising the senators.
Israel’s consul general, Anat Sultan-Dadon, was not amused and said so:
Anat Sultan-Dadon has become one of the most respected diplomats in Atlanta since she was appointed Israel’s consul general in 2019. She’s worked to cultivate relationships across the party spectrum, forging bonds with both senior Republicans and Democrats.
So her statement this weekend criticizing U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff — Georgia’s first Jewish U.S. senator — over his vote on doomed efforts to restrict ammunition sales to Israel packed an extra punch.
“Expressing your criticism of Israel — an allied democracy — by voting against it on a core national security interest during an existential war, is deeply concerning,” Sultan-Dadon wrote, adding that defeating Israel’s enemies should be a “shared imperative for the entire free world.”
Further, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted, “Roughly 50 of Georgia’s most prominent Jewish organizations penned an open letter last week assailing his support for the failed measures…”
Ossoff, along with his colleague, Sen. Raphael Warnock, were also rebuked by the lone Jewish member of Georgia’s Statehouse:
The votes could impact both senators’ future political prospects — Georgia is among the most purple states in the nation, with a significant Jewish population in the Atlanta area. Ossoff, who won by approximately 50,000 votes in 2020, is up for reelection in 2026. Both senators have also been floated as potential Democratic presidential contenders.
“Last night’s votes contradict Senator Ossoff’s claims of [an] ‘ironclad’ commitment to and steadfast support of Israel, aimed at penalizing Israel and thereby weakening a democratically elected government at a critical time,” [Democrat Rep. Esther Panitch] said in a statement to Jewish Insider.
It’s hard to know how much this issue will play out in 2026, especially if the Israel-Hamas war is over by that point and Israel is in an even stronger position. But after the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and what followed, I suspect Jewish voters are not going to so easily forget any member of Congress who voted to restrict arms sales in Israel’s time of need.
FLASHBACK: The Devil Went Down to Georgia – and Is Puttin’ a Whuppin’ on Joe Biden
