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<\/h1>\nLast week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she would vote against any military aid to Israel, including weapons that are deemed \u201cdefensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez made the comments to a New York City Democratic Socialists\u00a0of America (NYC DSA) forum, which was first reported on by\u00a0City & State<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez told attendees, in response to an inquiry regarding a potential arms embargo. \u201cThe Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to clarify,\u201d one DSA member asked in a follow-up. \u201cIf the moment presents itself in Congress, will you commit to voting \u2018no\u2019 for any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called \u2018defensive capabilities?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u201d 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 \u201cdefensive\u201d aid.<\/p>\n In 2021, she voted\u00a0present<\/a>\u00a0on 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\u2019s Iron Dome system.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe strongly in Israel\u2019s right to self-defense and have joined colleagues previously in affirming our shared commitment,\u201d\u00a0read<\/a>\u00a0the letter. \u201cAll of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems and we are committed to a sovereign, safe, and secure future for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, she voted\u00a0against an amendment\u00a0introduced 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 \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cdefensive\u201d military aid in a tweet.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d she wrote. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.\u201d<\/p>\n The Congress member\u2019s apparent shift comes amid a wider battle over Israel within the Democratic party.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0shows that just 13% of Democrats view the Israel positively, while almost 60% view it negatively.<\/p>\n Recently, \u00a0the 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.<\/p>\n AIPAC-backed candidates\u00a0won<\/a>\u00a0just two of four races in Illinois last month, and the group\u2019s preferred candidate came in\u00a0third<\/a>\u00a0in New Jersey\u2019s 11th district primary. In North Carolina\u2019s 4th district, incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) narrowly fended off a left-wing challenger, but not before backing the\u00a0Block the Bombs Act<\/a>\u00a0and declaring that she\u2019d stop taking campaign contributions from AIPAC.<\/p>\n Political consultant Peter Feld told\u00a0Mondoweiss<\/em>\u00a0that the issue of military aid will inevitably emerge as another Israel-related issue that candidates will have to adapt to.<\/p>\n \u201cEnding any and all aid to Israel will be the absolute litmus test,\u201d said Feld. \u201cAIPAC is hated but everyone knows they aren\u2019t the whole story. Thanks to Iran, the Israel issue is getting away from the Democratic establishment a lot faster than they realize.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after AOC addressed the DSA forum, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA)\u00a0made<\/a>\u00a0a similar statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Iron Dome is important and saves lives,\u201d he\u00a0tweeted<\/a>. \u201cIsrael 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\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Vox<\/a><\/em>\u00a0that Israel has the capacity to pay for its own weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a different game now, and you will not get the United States taxpayers to foot the bill for you,\u201d Emanuel\u00a0told Semafor<\/a>. \u201cNot happening.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about Iron Dome specifically, Emanuel did not make an exception for the system.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, nobody else has the Iron Dome,\u201d he explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of other countries that want it! Now, what you can say about Iron Dome is that it was jointly developed, so that\u2019s something we have to think through. But what I\u2019m saying is, you won\u2019t get taxpayer support anymore. You\u2019re going to pay full price. You don\u2019t have special status.\u201d<\/p>\n In an January\u00a0Economist<\/a><\/em>\u00a0interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the Israeli Prime Minister said that he\u2019d like to \u201ctaper\u201d Israel off U.S. military aid over the course of the next decade.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be as independent as possible,\u201d claimed Netanyahu. \u201cIn 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\u2019ve come of age, and we\u2019ve developed incredible capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n As journalist Mitchell Plitnick\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Mondoweiss<\/em>\u00a0earlier this year, the U.S.\/Israel Memorandum of Understanding\u00a0(MOU) is set to expire in two years and establishing a new agreement won\u2019t be as easy as it has in the past. In this sense, Netanyahu\u2019s curious comments can be assessed as a political pivot and an attempt to protect Israel from further criticism.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Israel, AIPAC, and their fellow travelers pushed for a new MOU now\u2014something they are still leaving the option open for\u2014they would probably win,\u201d observed Plitnick. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWorse for them, the fight would be a difficult one and would spotlight all the objections to Israel\u2019s behavior from the left, and the argument that a country as wealthy as Israel doesn\u2019t need free money from the right,\u201d he added. \u201cThe political beating pro-Israel forces would take from that fight would not just spell doom for future aid, but could further jeopardize Israel\u2019s already weakening political status in the near term.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s trepidation is well-founded and antipathy toward Israel is only increasing as a result of the situation. A new\u00a0Pew poll<\/a>\u00a0shows that 60% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, which is up from 53% last year.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a reality that political candidates will have to reckon with, regardless of their political party.<\/p>\n