Two years after Oct. 7 attack, politics have shifted as war in Gaza goes on

In Chamblee, the weekend-long Atlanta Arab Festival featured dozens of vendors, offering everything from food, jewelry and skin care products to T-shirts that read “Stop Arming Israel” and pamphlets for how to get involved in organized coalitions for Palestinian support.

“This gathering of the Arab American community brings us together in solidarity and sharing what’s beautiful about our culture with others,” said Ghada Elnajjar, a Palestinian American and leader of Arab Americans Forward, a political advocacy group.

After Hamas’ surprise attack, Israel launched a counteroffensive that has killed about 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza during military action, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has displaced thousands more from their homes. Israel has disputed the count but not provided its own toll.

Even though Jewish and Arab Americans reflect only a small part of the Georgia electorate, the Israeli hostage crisis and devastation in Gaza have taken on an outsized part of the debate in the races for U.S. Senate and governor.

Meanwhile, public opinion has dramatically shifted. Many voters now oppose sending additional money and weapons to Israel and are increasingly concerned about starvation among Palestinians in Gaza, multiple polls have showed. Even American Jews have become critical of Israel’s military actions.

All of this comes as a peace negotiation may be near. Hamas said Friday it would agree to release all of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza as well as the bodies of those who had died, in response to a proposal introduced by President Donald Trump, but the group did not address the stipulation that the group disarm.

The Israeli-Hamas war has been most prominent in the U.S. Senate race, largely because Congress has the power to directly influence Israel through weapons and monetary aid, even as health care and housing top voters’ priorities.

“It’s a telling mark for the candidates’ morality. If you don’t stand for justice and freedom and dignity for other people, why would you stand for me here?” Elnajjar said.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, the first Jewish Senator in Georgia history, is up for reelection next year.

He’s had to walk a tight balance, listening to the base of his party that wants tougher restrictions on military aid to Israel while not alienating his more conservative Jewish voters.

He voted in favor of a resolution to block the sale of 20,000 automatic rifles to Israel but voted in a separate resolution not to block a $675 million shipment of bombs to Israel, saying he believes the country needs to counter threats beyond Hamas.

But he has also struggled to completely appease the Jewish community, many of whom are upset about his votes and less public demands to release hostages.

Derek Dooley blasted Ossoff in August for failing to vote for “critical support for Israel.” U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, called Ossoff’s vote “sad” in an interview with The AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, has pointed less ire toward Ossoff on Israel. Collins has faced his own criticism that some of his social media posts are viewed as antisemitic.

State Rep. Ruwa Romman, the first Muslim woman in the Georgia General Assembly and the first Palestinian American elected to public office in the state, entered the governor’s race last week. Romman, D-Duluth, said she knows her ethnic heritage will feature in the campaign.

“That’s my identity… I’m also not ashamed of it. I’m a very proud Palestinian,” she said on the “Politically Georgia” podcast.

Democrats face the uneasy task of reconciling the anger from younger voters, many of whom strongly sympathize with Palestinians over the Israeli government, with the staunch support for Israel among the party’s establishment leaders. Romman, 32, reflects that divide.

Other Democrats are starting to sway toward Ossoff and Romman’s position. Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who is running as a Democrat, said in an AJC interview he also supports limiting U.S. arms sales to Israel.

He was also asked in a recent podcast interview whether he would take campaign donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a bipartisan pro-Israel group.

Just three days earlier, on Yom Kippur — the holiest day in Judaism — a man drove his car into a crowd outside a synagogue in the English city of Manchester, killing two worshippers and seriously injuring three others. There have also been deadly attacks on Jews in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington.

Some critics of Israel have faced deportation as a result of their protests. In one high-profile incident, the Trump administration arrested and moved to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful resident and prominent figure at Columbia University who was protesting against the war in Gaza.