opinion
Could a Muslim Senator Be an
Ardent Supporter of Israel?
BY JONATHAN S. TOBIN
I 16
AUGUST 25, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz at a
campaign event in Philadelphia on Aug. 17, 2022.

If the Abraham Accords truly represent the future, we
are going to need a lot more moderate Muslims like Oz.

Oprah Winfrey, on whose own show he had been
a frequent guest.

As a TV host, Oz was no stranger to controversy as
his endorsement of various weight loss and anti-ag-
ing products of dubious effi cacy was denounced
by many doctors. He was also bitterly criticized for
giving opponents of vaccinations a hearing on his
show. During the coronavirus pandemic, he was
similarly condemned by the medical establishment
for saying that keeping the schools closed as part
of lockdowns was doing more harm than good,
though in retrospect, that seems reasonable given
the educational and mental-health damage done to
children who were at low risk from the virus.

Democrats think the association with Trump and
having an extremist at the head of the GOP ticket
in the form of Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate
Doug Mastriano will doom Oz. But he’s hoping that
appealing to pro-Israel sentiment will win him votes.

It is customary for candidates to try to curry
favor with American Jews by speaking of their
support for the Jewish state. But those who
turned out for the RJC event were not given the
usual pro-Israel boilerplate. There were elements
of the familiar in Oz’s attempts to link his family’s
past to Jewish history and his talk about how a trip
to Israel left him deeply moved.

Yet he minced no words about the U.S.-Israel
relationship and whether or not Washington
should, as Muslim and liberal Jewish groups
often urge, pressure the Jewish state to make
concessions to the Palestinians. To the contrary,
he staked out a position that is actually closer
to that of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu than Trump. Instead of endorsing a
two-state solution, as far as Oz is concerned,
Israeli territorial concessions are a bad idea.

“I don’t believe that Israel should give up any
territory,” he declared to the cheers of those in
attendance, who were handed out signs saying
“Pro-Israel, Pro-Oz,” “Jews for Oz” and the doc-
tor’s name printed in Hebrew and English, as well
as some declaring that Fetterman was aligned
with the far-left, anti-Israel congressional “Squad.”
Bashing Fetterman for being endorsed by
the left-wing J Street lobby — even though the
Democratic candidate backed Israel’s right to
self-defense, as reported by JNS — Oz said the
criticism of Israel that has become commonplace
among left-wing Democrats was due to intersec-
tional beliefs that lead them to oppose anyone
with “power.” He said he admired Israel’s power,
without which he correctly pointed out “there
would be no Israel.” He opposes any limitations
Photo by Jonathan S. Tobin
n the last decade, seemingly every formerly
unbreakable rule of American political life has
been broken by former President Donald Trump
or his opponents. But perhaps nothing that has
occurred would be quite as remarkable as what
would happen if the Republican Jewish Coalition
gets its way in a race that is the group’s top priority
in the 2022 midterms.

In a packed Philadelphia hotel ballroom with local
and national media present, the RJC rolled out
its campaign last week to help elect Dr. Mehmet
Oz, a Muslim and Turkish American to an open
Pennsylvania Senate seat. In doing so, they hope to
play a part in making history for American Muslims
since if he wins, Oz would be the fi rst member of his
faith to serve in the U.S. Senate. It would also boost
their party’s chances of winning back the Senate.

At the same time, they will also be assuring that the
seat will be held by an ardent supporter of Israel.

RJC head Matthew Brooks and David Friedman,
who served as U.S. ambassador to Israel in the
Trump administration and was an interlocutor at
the event for Oz, sought to frame their support
for the candidate in the context of the expanding
circle of peace between Jews and Muslims that
rests at the core of the Abraham Accords.

It didn’t hurt that the event came on the same
day that it was announced that Turkey and Israel
will resume full diplomatic relations after rising
tensions between the two countries due to the
support that the Islamist government of Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has given to the
Hamas terrorist movement.

Oz, who narrowly won a GOP primary largely
due to an endorsement from Trump, is a citizen of
both the United States and Turkey, and trails his
Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman,
in the polls. Republicans have to hold this seat
to have a chance to tip the balance in a 50-50
Senate that is controlled by the Democrats due to
Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

Though he was born in Delaware to immigrants
from Turkey, he went back to his parents’ home-
land and served in the Turkish Army in his 20s to
preserve his dual citizenship. He then returned to
the United States, where he earned degrees from
Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania before
going on to a career as a professor at Columbia
University and as a widely respected heart surgeon.

But he is best known as the host of the “Dr. Oz
Show,” a daily daytime talk program devoted to
medicine and health topics that was launched by
the production company owned by TV superstar