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<\/a><\/p>\nSen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., in session at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 24, 2025. (Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The incumbent Ossoff, who is Jewish, has long supported Israel\u2019s security, but over the last two years he has criticized its conduct in the Gaza war and voted to block some U.S. arms sales to the country.<\/p>\n
A day after the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, Ossoff was asked whether Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, whether he was concerned about growing anti-Israel sentiment within the Democratic Party and whether he would support a proposed $2.8 billion U.S. weapons package for Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question of genocide is a question of whether a government has the specific intent to destroy a national or ethnic group, and that is a question for the International Criminal Court,\u201d Ossoff responded. \u201cThere is no doubt in my mind that Israeli forces prosecuting the war in Gaza violated the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law, and I care deeply about the security of the Israeli people, among whom are members of my family. <\/p>\n
\u201cI also care about innocent Palestinian life,\u201d Ossoff continued, \u201cand make no apology for my votes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collins accused Ossoff of having aligned himself with anti-Israel figures including Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine being a U.S. senator, and out there recruiting, endorsing, and supporting these people that want to see Israel wiped off the map,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThey would rather be for Iran than for Israel \u2014 now that\u2019s who Jon Ossoff is supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piker had previously called Ossoff a possible contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. He subsequently disavowed Ossoff after the senator condemned antisemitic comments.<\/p>\n
During the hourlong debate, Ossoff repeatedly condemned the U.S. war in Iran while highlighting Collins\u2019 support for it. At least three times Ossoff called the war in Iran a \u201cdisaster\u201d or \u201cdisastrous,\u201d and he blamed the war for rising gas prices in the state of Georgia.<\/p>\n
Collins, on the other hand, said he supported the war as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. \u201cThe president had every right to go in there and make sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThe IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], they had already sounded the bells, the alarms that Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon. And the thing is, Iran doesn\u2019t only want to decimate and kill Israel, they want us as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
The evening was not without its personal attacks. Collins described Ossoff as \u201ca radical\u201d and a \u201ctrust-fund kid who has never had a job in his life,\u201d while Ossoff repeatedly spotlighted the alleged ties between Collins and white nationalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just that you\u2019ve hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office and that you have promoted neo-Nazi content online,\u201d Ossoff said when making a point of Collins\u2019 backing for data centers. \u201cIt\u2019s that you\u2019re robbing your constituents to subsidize your donors.\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent report alleged that Collins\u2019 former aides were involved with antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric.<\/p>\n
Ossoff leads Collins by about nine percentage points in FiftyPlusOne\u2019s polling average as of Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
The candidates are scheduled for a second debate hosted by the Atlanta Press Club on Oct. 13.<\/p>\n