With all the focus on Georgia Senate candidate Raphael Warnock’s sharp criticism of Israel and his backtracking in the last few days– what about the other Democratic candidate in the Georgia races that will determine the balance of power in the Senate for the next two years?
Jon Ossoff, 33, a former documentary producer and former House staffer to Hank Johnson, has been far more careful and surefooted than Warnock. His positions are predictably mainstream Democrat, likely reflecting Ossoff’s own Jewish background and familiarity with the questions. His views are shaped by his relatives who survived the Holocaust and pogroms, he says; and the liberal Zionist group J Street has endorsed him.
Ossoff does not touch on foreign policy on his website though he studied it in college and produced documentaries about ISIS. He presents himself as liberal/progressive on domestic issues (“Race and class disparities in policing, prosecution, and sentencing must be ended nationwide”).
When it comes to Israel, Ossoff has covered his bases shrewdly. In nods to conservative Zionists, he has supported Israel’s attacks on Gaza and touted a connection to Michael Oren, the far-right Israeli ambassador and historian, whom Ossoff says he studied under at Georgetown University’s school of foreign service.
In nods to liberal Zionists, he opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank, supports the “two-state solution,” supports the Iran deal (as the best way to contain Iran), and opposes Israeli house demolitions.
He has also said that the two-state solution is on life support, per the American Jewish Congress:
Ossoff supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but he thinks that the two state solution is “on life support.” He argued that he was “deeply pessimistic that any of the parties, including the United States, are serious about pursuing it.”
Ossoff has couched criticism of Israel in the language of Zionism, per a video statement he made to the American Jewish Congress last month.
I oppose Israeli annexation of the West Bank. What I want is for Israel’ s security as a homeland for the Jewish people to be secured and strenghtened with U.S. support.
Ossoff is strongly opposed to BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against “our great ally Israel” — though surveys show that most Democratic voters actually support BDS measures in order to stop Israel’s expansionist policies.
I personally oppose the BDS movement, I think it singles out Israel. I think that it’s bad for US Israel relations. I want to see the Israeli economy thrive. I want to see US Israel relations deepen and strengthen. So my personal view, I oppose the BDS movement, I will however defend any American’s First Amendment right to criticize or personally boycott any government in the world… I will vigorously oppose any legislative effort, any policy effort to force the U.S. to boycott or divest from our great ally Israel….
He attacked “terrorism” against Israel, supported Israel’s right to defend itself, and called for human rights for everybody in the region.
“It’s a tragedy, a historic tragedy,” Ossoff said in that video statement last month, that the conflict has gone on for over 50 years. And while praising Israel’s normalization deals with Arab countries, he has bewailed the lack of “US leadership for a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
Ossoff claims that everyone wants a two-state solution.
“Ordinary Israelis, ordinary Palestinians, and the American peole all want to see… a two state solution.”
This is not borne out by polling, which shows a plurality of 43 percent of Israelis and Palestinians wanting two states, but this figure is lower than ever before.
When Ossoff ran for Congress in Georgia in 2017 (losing in a close race that launched his political career), the JTA reported that he was proud to be a progressive. But one of his backers made it clear that Ossoff had nothing to do with Obama’s Iran deal when working for Hank Johnson.
Ossoff… wears his progressive badge with pride. He turned up at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on the Saturday night that Trump’s first executive order banning refugees and other travelers from Muslim-majority countries went into effect, and identifies with them as a matter of heritage…
[Businessman Steve] Oppenheimer, Ossoff’s backer, says as a congressional aide the candidate helped draft Iran sanctions, but also is quick to note that Ossoff had left the job by the time Democrats were backing the Iran nuclear deal that so riled AIPAC.
“He was not involved in the deal President Obama made,” Oppenheimer said with emphasis.
In other base-covering moves, Ossoff has tweeted a Fox News appearance by his old mentor Michael Oren; tweeted a Netanyahu welcome of Obama’s reelection in 2012. And in 2012 as Israel was pounding Gaza, he asked a lot of establishment types and Israeli government spokespeople, “What are Israel’s strategic objectives here?”
The liberal Zionist group J Street promotes a report in the Forward on Ossoff’s liberal bona fides:
“Jon Ossoff… may also deliver a victory to the dovish side of the pro-Israel camp. Ossoff is a supporter of the left-leaning lobby J Street and has received $56,000 through the group’s PAC in the run-up to [last] Tuesday’s elections….Ossoff has clearly sided with the left wing of the pro-Israel community….Last month, according to a spokeswoman for the lobby, Ossoff attended a meeting of J Street’s Atlanta chapter and spoke briefly at the event, telling participants he was excited to work as a candidate with the group that he had first encountered as a congressional staffer.”
Ossoff’s skilled navigation of the Israel/Palestine issue, trying to please all sides of the Israel lobby and Democratic establishment, too, reveal the issue as the same sort of puzzle for Democratic candidates that Roe v. Wade has become for conservative Supreme Court nominees. A smart Senate candidate will try to do nothing to alienate the D.C. establishment, the less said the better.
In the world’s greatest democracy, politicians are whipped into shape by the Israeli lobby, who make sure they toe the zionist line, say the right things (no free speech when it comes to Israel), and willing to support Israel’s crimes.
Guess the Zionist lobby will leave him alone, then, while they eviscerate Rev. Warnock.
I’m still praying that, somewhere along the line, Warnock rediscovers the spine he once had on the issue. Maybe that will happen once/if he becomes a senator?
Ossoff is clearly spineless.
Israel…Israel….Israel, thats all you ever hear from Phil Weiss.
I say, Covid 19, global warming, curing racial and economic divisions.
But, Israel…Israel…Israel, like a broken record.
That’s all you ever hear.
Utter monotony.