Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative, said on Wednesday that she will oppose any future US military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.
In a statement on social media, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel was fully capable of funding “Iron Dome and other defensive systems”, and that “consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law”.
Her remarks on Wednesday follow reports that she pledged to oppose any future military aid to Israel during a New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) forum on Tuesday evening.
“Our allies who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment and the foreign assistance act”, Ocasio-Cortez added, referring to a law which prohibits the US from providing military support to army units that violate human rights.
According to City & State, which obtained a partial recording of the DSA forum, Ocasio-Cortez told members: “I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” adding that “the Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”
After previously voting to approve funding for the Iron Dome.
It’s true; she did vote last year, and openly stated, that she for funding Israel’s defense, and received a lot of backlash and criticism for it. Thankfully she’s started to take the right response to the issue now, but it was super poorly handled at the time because she doubled down not realizing that’s about as good being open to funding the defense for Nazi Germany.
I like AOC, and think she’s a great fit for the senate, but I often criticise her political instincts at this point in her career.
Similar sentiment here. It does no one any good to pretend like her recent pivot is how she has acted the entire time.
I’m hopeful that she continues on this new path.