Last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she would vote against any military aid to Israel, including weapons that are deemed “defensive.”
Ocasio-Cortez made the comments to a New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA) forum, which was first reported on by City & State.
“I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez told attendees, in response to an inquiry regarding a potential arms embargo. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”
“I wanted to clarify,” one DSA member asked in a follow-up. “If the moment presents itself in Congress, will you commit to voting ‘no’ for any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called ‘defensive capabilities?’”
“Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. Since arriving in the House, Ocasio-Cortez has co-sponsored many bills highlighting Palestinian rights and opposing certain weapon sales to Israel. However, the potential presidential candidate has wavered on the subject of “defensive” aid.
In 2021, she voted present on an Iron Dome bill, claiming that she opposed the actual legislation, but opposed the process in which it was brought to the floor. In 2024, she signed a letter which opposed the sale of offensive weapons to Israel, but declared continued support for Israel’s Iron Dome system.
“We believe strongly in Israel’s right to self-defense and have joined colleagues previously in affirming our shared commitment,” read the letter. “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems and we are committed to a sovereign, safe, and secure future for Israel.”
Last year, she voted against an amendment introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) that cut $500 million in Iron Dome funding. Ocasio-Cortez said she opposed the measure because it did nothing to stop weapons from reaching Israel, but made a distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” military aid in a tweet.
“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,” she wrote. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.”
The Congress member’s apparent shift comes amid a wider battle over Israel within the Democratic party.
For years, polling has shown that a majority Democratic voters have grown critical of Israel and the U.S. support for the country, but those numbers have grown much higher as a result of the genocide in Gaza. A recent NBC News poll shows that just 13% of Democrats view the Israel positively, while almost 60% view it negatively.
Recently, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has emerged as a major point of contention in Democratic midterms, as candidates have moved to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular pro-Israel lobbying group.
AIPAC-backed candidates won just two of four races in Illinois last month, and the group’s preferred candidate came in third in New Jersey’s 11th district primary. In North Carolina’s 4th district, incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) narrowly fended off a left-wing challenger, but not before backing the Block the Bombs Act and declaring that she’d stop taking campaign contributions from AIPAC.
Political consultant Peter Feld told Mondoweiss that the issue of military aid will inevitably emerge as another Israel-related issue that candidates will have to adapt to.
“Thanks to Iran, the Israel issue is getting away from the Democratic establishment a lot faster than they realize.”
Political consultant Peter Feld
“Ending any and all aid to Israel will be the absolute litmus test,” said Feld. “AIPAC is hated but everyone knows they aren’t the whole story. Thanks to Iran, the Israel issue is getting away from the Democratic establishment a lot faster than they realize.”
Shortly after AOC addressed the DSA forum, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) made a similar statement.
“The Iron Dome is important and saves lives,” he tweeted. “Israel should be able to buy it on their own with a $45 defense billion budget. Israel is a first world country, and it can pay for the defensive systems it needs. We should not be subsidizing them, especially given their egregious violations of human rights law…”
Even longtime supports of Israel on the Democratic side are modifying their positions. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a pro-Israel stalwart and another rumored 2028 candidate, has made U.S. aid to Israel a talking point and recently told Vox that Israel has the capacity to pay for its own weapons.
“It’s a different game now, and you will not get the United States taxpayers to foot the bill for you,” Emanuel told Semafor. “Not happening.”
When asked about Iron Dome specifically, Emanuel did not make an exception for the system.
“Look, nobody else has the Iron Dome,” he explained. “There’s a lot of other countries that want it! Now, what you can say about Iron Dome is that it was jointly developed, so that’s something we have to think through. But what I’m saying is, you won’t get taxpayer support anymore. You’re going to pay full price. You don’t have special status.”
In an January Economist interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the Israeli Prime Minister said that he’d like to “taper” Israel off U.S. military aid over the course of the next decade.
“We want to be as independent as possible,” claimed Netanyahu. “In my [December 2025] visit to President Trump, I said we very deeply appreciate the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age, and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
Netanyahu hasn’t revisited this topic since, and the United States is currently spending billions of dollars a day attacking Iran in a war that many people believe was launched in defense of Israel.
As journalist Mitchell Plitnick wrote at Mondoweiss earlier this year, the U.S./Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is set to expire in two years and establishing a new agreement won’t be as easy as it has in the past. In this sense, Netanyahu’s curious comments can be assessed as a political pivot and an attempt to protect Israel from further criticism.
“If Israel, AIPAC, and their fellow travelers pushed for a new MOU now—something they are still leaving the option open for—they would probably win,” observed Plitnick. “But that victory is not a certainty as it was in the past, when annual aid, with or without such a memorandum, was almost as certain to pass as the annual defense bill.”
“Worse for them, the fight would be a difficult one and would spotlight all the objections to Israel’s behavior from the left, and the argument that a country as wealthy as Israel doesn’t need free money from the right,” he added. “The political beating pro-Israel forces would take from that fight would not just spell doom for future aid, but could further jeopardize Israel’s already weakening political status in the near term.”
Netanyahu’s trepidation is well-founded and antipathy toward Israel is only increasing as a result of the situation. A new Pew poll shows that 60% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, which is up from 53% last year.
That’s a reality that political candidates will have to reckon with, regardless of their political party.
Long past due for patriotic Americans to take back their country. No individual with Israel ties, or Israeli citizenship or Israeli lobby donor money should be permitted to participate in foreign policy decision-making. There is a clear conflict of interest, at minimum, and sedition at worst. This would apply to any other individual with ties to other countries. How can it be tolerated to have a member of Congress wearing an IDF uniform while on the job at the same time tens of thousands of wholly innocent Palestinian and Lebanese children are being slaughtered by IDF ghouls?
Put simply, voters have a choice between peace in the Middle East (and beyond) by ending our aupport for endless wars precipotated by, and for, Israel or continuing our ‘special relationship’ with the Jewish state.
It is believed by many that the Epstein files will expose the Jeffrey Epstein links to Mossad. Was Epstein using sex trafficking to blackmail the rich and the powerful in the United States, and benefit Israel’s political interests in America?