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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends decision to support military aid for Israel (www.middleeasteye.net)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33487836

By MEE staff
Published date: 21 July 2025 21:11 BST

The New York lawmaker voted against an amendment by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene last week that sought to block $500m in Congress' annual defence spending bill for Israel's Iron Dome programme.

Fellow Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar [as well as Democrats Al Green of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky - PL] had supported Taylor Greene's amendment, which eventually lost in a 422-6 vote.

In a post on X on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Greene's amendment did "nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza".

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[-] [email protected] 98 points 6 days ago

AOC's post:

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment does nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza. Of course I voted against it.

What it does do is cut off defensive Iron Dome capacities while allowing the actual bombs killing Palestinians to continue.

I have long stated that I do not believe that adding to the death count of innocent victims to this war is constructive to its end. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.

I remain focused on cutting the flow of US munitions that are being used to perpetuate the genocide in Gaza.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

I'm not sure I understand this argument. Everything is essentially money. If America gives them funding for the Iron Dome, that leaves Israel with more money to buy offensive weapons.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Exactly. Remember this when people claim we can turn the Democratic party with progessive candidates. The progressive candidates are the ones always turned by the Dems, not the other way around. It's their MO.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

So, this is a dumb explanation. It's like saying you would never support giving a knight a sword, just armor and a sheild. The armor and sheild are what let's him mow down peasants on the battlefield with impunity, you can't separate them out.

That being said, this is getting fucking ridiculous. The amendment was never going to pass (it got 6 votes), so this was entirely symbolic. Beyond that, she voted against the defense spending bill it was attached to, so in end, she didn't support arms to anyone. She's also one of the strongest voices on Gaza in congress (an admittedly low bar); she's been voting against sending arms to Israel since before October 7th, she usually votes, "present," on Iron Dome funding, and she's called what's happening in Gaza a genocide on the House floor. I can count on one hand the number of U.S. politicians willing to say, "genocide," when talking about Israel. Behind Omar and Talib, she's probably the most reliable pro-Palestinian Representative.

I'm assuming that she had some reason for voting against the amendment, and I assume it has to do with optics. Maybe she she thought siding with MTG would hurt her, maybe she thought voting against the Iron Dome would make her vulnerable to AIPAC attacks. It sucks, but Bowman and Bush both lost their seats to AIPAC money. The reality is you have to play politics sometimes, and if that means not making a symbolic vote for a doomed amendment, that's not the worst compromise to make.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 6 days ago

AOC is a beautifully blooming neoliberal, and it's time for all to stop worshipping her. She had proven over and over again that she'll vote for neo-liberal interests above all and justify it by wrapping it with a bow of humanity.

Think of all the American lives that could be saved with that money before you justify spending on the iron dome to protect foreigners from the consequences of committing Genocide. AOC is not your friend.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago

She's not a neo liberal... Maybe she'll become a liberal at worst

I believe she's a good person, I believe she's a true blue progressive...I just think she has terrible political instincts. It seems like she's making backroom deals that don't benefit her positions or even herself

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. And I don't think Bernie has been a good influence

We need fighters, and it's been too long since she actually fought. I still think she'll be part of the solution, but she's not panning out into what I hoped she'd be

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

I believe she's a good person, I believe she's a true blue progressive

Everything you typed after this implies the opposite. It's painful to accept that someone you admired might no longer be who you thought they were. But the sooner you let go of that attachment, the clearer things become. She is not your friend. You do not join the Democratic Party to fight it from within. You join it to become part of its machinery.

Look at her record and measure it against her rhetoric. She voted to fund the Iron Dome in 2021 and then cried on the House floor. That was not courage. That was shame. She has now voted against cutting funding to Israel’s military while bombs are falling on Gaza. She condemns genocide and then votes to fund it. That is not strategy. That is betrayal.

She avoids confrontation with her party even when that party is enabling mass death. She speaks of justice, then backs imperial budgets. She delays, reframes, and pacifies while Palestinians are being erased. Her presence is soothing for liberals and neutralizing for movements. She functions as a release valve. She gives you a reason to believe in a system that should be dismantled.

You said she might be making backroom deals that do not benefit her or her ideals. That is what co-optation looks like. It does not require corruption. It only requires surrender. It happens when staying in the room becomes more important than changing what the room represents.

It is not that she is inactive. It is that she actively helps preserve a violent status quo. That makes her dangerous in a different way. Not because she is cruel, but because she is trusted.

Being disappointed is honest. But if you continue to hold onto the belief that she is still part of the solution, you will miss what she has already become. She is no longer a fighter. She is now a barrier.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

She's not a barrier, she's still signal boosting progressives all over. She's just not the fighter we need, but she's not truly compromised... At least not yet

We can't just totally disavow people at the first mistake. She's still on our team, even if she's getting valid criticism and responding terribly.

I honestly wonder why she came out crying, and since then has actually been consistent on the iron dome. What did Pelosi say? What did she show her? My guess is she showed her dead Israeli children from before the iron dome. Her position is coherent, it's just naive

And I think Bernie is the main reason she hasn't been vocal in her criticism for Democrats. AOC has been open in that she doesn't know what she's doing but is trying her best...I believe she's still is. Now she's just getting bad/dated guidance and turning into another Bernie

And Bernie has been consistent and good his entire career... I'm confident she'll be the same

That being said, I thought people were mostly being sexist when they said she was too young to be president... But now I just think she doesn't have the sauce

She's still on our side, she just can't be the leader. And that's disappointing

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Do you even know how to read? Read her actual response. This amendment does NOTHING to stop aid to Israel.

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[-] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago

Manipulative title, fuck off.

[-] [email protected] 65 points 6 days ago

Big swing and a miss for AOC there.

[-] [email protected] 36 points 6 days ago

AOC doesn't miss. You're not listening to her or paying attention to the details/fine print. You can fuckin bet she is

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

She handled this terribly. She has a coherent position, not a great one but one I could accept, but the crash out has been disheartening

[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago

You just posted evidence that you respond to clickbait headlines without knowing what the article says or is even about. Hallmark of a conservative voter

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago

Why is this a miss?

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago

AOC’s defense of her vote is a swing and a miss because it rests on a false distinction. She claims the amendment only cuts funding for the Iron Dome (a "defensive" system) and not for the bombs killing Palestinians, but that’s misleading.

The Iron Dome isn’t neutral; it enables Israel to continue bombing Gaza with impunity by shielding it from retaliation. It’s part of the war apparatus, not separate from it.

By opposing this amendment, AOC helped maintain the full structure of US military aid that underwrites the genocide she says she opposes. Her rationale sounds nuanced, but in practice, it protects the status quo.

And while she says she's focused on cutting offensive munitions, the reality is that the US is sending Israel billions in lethal aid right now, and this amendment was a chance to actually stop some of it. Voting against it doesn’t show strategy; it shows inconsistency and a failure to act when it counts. If you’re serious about ending genocide, like she keeps insisting she is, you take every shot you can. This was one, and she missed it.

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

But no blood on the doors or Schumer or Jefferies.

This whole shitshow is just the octillionth example of the left biting its own dick off instead of attacking the fascists stomping on it.

[-] [email protected] 59 points 6 days ago

Cutting off defense seems like a dumb move and I agree with AOC on this. We should cease all offensive weaponry sales as that’s clearly being used in a god damn genocide.

[-] [email protected] 79 points 6 days ago

Cutting defense means they would have to shift the budget to defense.

Moreover you're helping the aggressor protect itself against finding out the consequences of their own action.

Fuck that noise.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago

Moreover you're helping the aggressor protect itself against finding out the consequences of their own action.

You literally sound like the pro-genocide people with that statement.

[-] [email protected] 49 points 6 days ago

You understand that the Iron Dome is why Israel felt it had the impunity to strike Iran and continued to act belligerent in the region right?

Furthermore withholding all Munitions to a state facilitating genocide is the bare minimum. Regardless of the intended purpose any Munition can be turned offensive.

Finally even if Israel didn't have the resupply for the Iron Dome and had to supply their own budget it would not guarantee a genocide against the Israeli people. Saying anything of the such is stupid and undermines the control of the United States has in that area with its massive aircraft carriers that carry the power of a small state with them.

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

Would you find supplying Nazi Germany defensive weapons during the Holocaust to be acceptable?

Of course not, because those defensive weapons are still used to embolden their genocidal actions

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[-] [email protected] 31 points 6 days ago

Funding is funding.

Cut it all off.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

Why are we responsible for Israel's defense? they have free health care and education but our checkbook is open for iron dome missiles for them ? No. Thats American taxpayer money, not theirs. If they are rich enough to bribe the entire American government, then they are rich enough to buy their own missiles.

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Didn't pass the purity test. Back to being a field slave. Also, you personally aren't doing enough and are therefore colluding with the oppressors. I am infallible.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

You are allowed to say you like progressive policies and also hate giving weapons to genociders.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago

According to her, she voted no to this bill. I’m very confused by this article.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

She didn't vote yes to the amendment to the bill to remove defensive funding. She voted no to the whole bill the amendment applied to IIRC.

[-] [email protected] 38 points 6 days ago

Ahh, gotcha, so this is just a shit stirring article that tries to send a very misleading message

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

It was an amendment to remove funding for the iron dome. She voted against the amendment.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

regardless of the position on "Israel" genocide, this is tax money going to a foreign country.

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this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025

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