More than half of likely Georgia voters want Congress to rein in U.S. military support for Israel, according to new polling released as Senator Jon Ossoff and Republican challenger Mike Collins head toward Election Day. Fifty-five percent approved of Senate measures to block bomb transfers to Israel, while 52% supported cutting $3.3 billion in taxpayer-funded weapons aid to the country. The numbers land squarely in the middle of a Georgia Senate race where the candidates have staked out starkly different positions on the issue.
A Poll With Sharp Partisan Divides
The survey, conducted by YouGov for the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, polled hundreds of likely Georgia voters between Sept. 25 and Oct. 14, according to USA Today. Per the same polling data, published by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, the sample drew from more than 3,200 voters surveyed across six states during that stretch. Support for blocking bomb transfers broke down heavily along party lines: 76% of Georgia Democrats backed the block, compared with 69% of independents and just 33% of Republicans.
On the spending question, 52% of Georgia voters supported cutting the $3.3 billion in taxpayer-funded military support for Israel, while 34% opposed the cut, the USA Today report notes. That funding traces back to a 10-year bilateral military-aid memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, which commits the United States to provide Israel $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Separately, a bill pending in Congress, H.R. 3565, would prohibit the president from selling, transferring or exporting certain defense articles or services to Israel except in specified circumstances, per Congress.gov.
Where Georgia Voters Land on U.S. Support Overall
Asked more broadly about the direction of U.S. support, 39% of Georgia voters said the United States should reduce its support for Israel, while 34% said support should stay the same and 9% wanted it increased, the polling found. On the question of who benefits most from the relationship, 45% of Georgia voters said it benefits Israel more, 32% said the benefits are roughly equal between the two nations, and 8% said the United States benefits more. A similar pattern showed up on the war with Iran: half of Georgia voters said that conflict benefits Israel more than the United States, 28% said it benefits the U.S. more, and 22% said they weren't sure.
The political stakes of those views were evident in another finding: 41% of Georgia voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who opposed additional weapons funding to Israel, while 32% said they would be less likely to support such a candidate, and 27% were unsure. The report states that the overall findings were relatively consistent across Georgia and the five other battleground states surveyed — Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
How Georgia Compares to Other Battleground States
Georgia's numbers tracked closely with several other states polled on the same question. Approval of measures blocking bomb transfers to Israel ranged from 51% in North Carolina to 65% in Maine, according to Responsible Statecraft. Earlier polling from Data for Progress found even higher support for blocking the transfers in California, Colorado, Arizona and Michigan, with majorities in each of those states also saying Israel benefits more than the United States from the Iran war.
Among Georgia Democrats specifically, the shift has been building for a while. A separate poll found only about one-third of likely Georgia Democratic primary voters believed supporting Israel was in the U.S. national interest, and 44% said it should not be a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That outlet reported that younger, wealthier and more liberal Georgia Democratic primary voters were especially likely to hold that view.
Ossoff and Collins Spar Over Israel Policy
The poll numbers surface as Ossoff, Georgia's incumbent Democratic senator and the state's first Jewish senator, faces Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Collins in what USA Today describes as a crucial Senate race. Ossoff has said weapons transfers to foreign governments should be weighed case by case, stating that officials should assess in every case whether that foreign government is acting consistent with our interests, our laws and our values. Collins, for his part, has accused Ossoff and the Democratic Socialists of America of hating Israel and claimed they would rather vote for Iran than support Israel — a characterization Ossoff has not aligned himself with and is not affiliated with the organization.
A separate AJC poll of 1,000 likely Georgia general-election voters, conducted Oct. 7-15 by the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs with a 3.1-percentage-point margin of error, found Ossoff leading Collins 48% to 40%, with nearly 12% undecided. How much Israel policy itself will sway that outcome remains to be seen, but the issue has clearly become a live wire in a race already drawing national attention.
