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.
“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.
Odds & Ends
🚨 Supporters say Wisconsin mosque president was detained over Israel criticism
🇺🇸 How the neoconservative influence over U.S. war-making paved the way for Trump’s war crimes in Iran
💰 Responsible Statecraft: Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we ‘sell’ to them — US taxpayers do
📊 Pew Research Center: Negative views of Israel, Netanyahu continue to rise among Americans – especially young people
❌ Counterpunch: Trump Announces Iran Ceasefire: US Offramp or Just Another Deception?
🇨🇱 Jewish Insider: Texas Dems to consider resolutions on Israel arms embargo, blasting pro-Israel groups
🤝🏻 Common Dreams: While Distancing from AIPAC, Most 2028 Democratic Hopefuls Are Still Embracing Israel
🚔 Zeteo: Trump’s New Red Scare Is Coming to State and Local Police Near You
Re Israel’s military actions, people who write about international relations and American foreign policy are not thrilled about Israel. Here’s one example from Responsible Statecraft:
For peace with Iran to work a reckoning with Israel is in order…..Arguably, the most important part of preventing a restart of the war before May is ensuring that our relationship with Israel returns to its rightful order. The U.S. is not a tool to be used to further Israeli regional ambitions. It should never go to war on behalf of any foreign government…..The most recent escalation by Israel in Lebanon, which should be noted, shows a flagrant lack of respect for Washington, and also underscores a pattern that is as evident as it is problematic: a seemingly deliberate attempt to prevent or undermine the ability of the U.S. to negotiate with Iran…..First, the U.S. did not go to war in the interest of of the American people. Rather, the stated rationale by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and others, on Feb. 28, was that Israel was going to attack Iran; therefore, we needed to join them to protect our troops stationed in the region (Rubio has since walked his remarks back)….Especially egregious was the conflict, which was launched in the middle of U.S.-Iranian negotiations, opened with the targeted killing of Iran’s head of state Ayatollah Khomeini and several members of his immediate family...Second, Israel’s track record of adhering to ceasefire agreements, especially as of late, has been abysmal. Since the declaration of a ceasefire in Gaza on Oct. 10, 2025, Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement at least 2,073 times, and this data only runs through March 18, 2026….Simply put, this presents a pattern that is not only inconsistent with American values and historical precedent but also at odds with how we fight wars. Each one of these targeted actions appears at face value to not only prevent de-escalation, but more importantly, to entrench the U.S. in a conflict by eliminating those within Iran who are moderate enough to negotiate…..Israeli leadership must be reminded where their financial and military aid comes from and that this relationship is not a blank check….
For peace with Iran to work a reckoning with Israel is in order | Responsible Statecraft
This is not even a difficult choice. The Big Beautiful Bill caused millions to lose their rural hospitals, Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and the deficit to surpass 39 trillion this year before the war in Iran. Now Trump has demanded Medicare cuts to pay for his undeclared war. The overwhelming majority of voters consider all of this patently unconstitutional. Remember that even Congress and the President cannot overturn the sovereign will of the people and their state legislatures as expressed in the Constitution.
When the people require a Declaration of War from Congress or require that the Legislative branch regulate any call up of the National Guard and punish piracies, felonies on the high seas, and violations of the Laws of Nations, that literally means SCOTUS, the President, and Congress need to Amend the Constitution before claiming the power to let Trump or Pete Hegseth contradict those requirements and invade our cities, murder people on the streets or on the high seas, declare war on Iran, threaten to invade Panama, Greenland and still expect sane persons to accept bullshit obfuscation from our corporate media that any of those blatant criminal enterprises is somehow unclear, acceptable, or our hands are tied. See: Multiple U.S. National Guard units from states including Mississippi, Nevada, Kansas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho, and Vermont have been activated or deployed to the Middle East to support “Operation Epic Fury,” How did they get called out, and get to another country half-way around the world?
See also: Trump’s return to distracting from his failures by threatening to invade Greenland. Here and here.
If you think Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran must be disarmed, why does the ICJ refuse to make the UK or Israel obey the Chapter 7 Security Council Resolutions or the NPT, and give up or reduce their nuclear stockpiles? Trump’s DoJ refused to admit the 2nd Amendment can’t be used to justify private Neo-Nazi US corporations, like Tesla, or private KKK citizens militias from building their own nuclear weapons. See: Trump DOJ refuses to rule out Second Amendment right to nuclear weapons.
Now we are threatened by wars over reinstalling Confederate monuments on government property and taking down Black historical markers. We’re even trying to declare the Vatican a belligerent because the Pope can read the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, like most American citizens. See: Pentagon-Vatican me
Cutting U.S. aid off to Israel has been long overdue.
Must listen:
“Empire terminating event”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loJrBNknVWs
Anyone hear this report live. I did. Big kudos to Ana Cabrera for letting this report through. She must have some new producers. Not seeing any other media outlets who have picked it up. Raw Story did.
Watch the interview.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-destroy-iran-ms-now/