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.”
I agree the current state of Israel is illegal and shouldn’t exist, but political positions like this are separate from my view that most civilians are just normal folks and shouldn’t bear the primary burden - generally wars should be fought targeting military targets, not targeting civilians. I understand that’s a bit complicated when the conflict is asymmetric and one side is not a military as much as a guerilla resistance, their tactics do rely more on using terror to pressure political solutions in their favor.
But yeah, I agree with not funding Israel ✅ The US doesn’t have a special obligation to fund Israel, even if they have been a useful “attack dog” in the Middle East for us, I don’t think US intervention in pretty much most cases is helpful - the US is a big part of why Israel gets away with their crimes and is an unchecked genocidal, racist state.
The thing is that the Israelis don’t give a fuck about civilians and I am a firm believer in the golden rule even when it does bite me in the ass. So if they don’t give a fuck then neither should we, they want to do terroristic bombing campaigns then fine their civilians are valid now as well. You reap what you sow and all that.
But yeah we seem to agree at like 90 percent or so, it’s just where we draw the line and what we consider to be morally acceptable. You value civilians and I refuse to due to Israel not valuing them, though I would exterminate every settler community with the vigor of the US army in Vietnam but that’s more of a fuck them in particular thing.