Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Caitlin Johnstone/file photo.
She’s actively stopping American politics from moving any further left than the nightmare we see before us.
Originally published in Orinoco Tribune.
The Democratic Party’s Instagram-friendly progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has voted with the overwhelming majority of House representatives against withholding $500 million in missile funding for Israel, despite previously saying that Israel is committing “a genocide of Palestinians” in Gaza with US support.
The only lawmakers voting to withhold the military aid were Democrats Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee and Al Green, and Republicans Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Coming under fire from the left for the glaring contradiction of providing military assistance to a state that is perpetrating an active genocide, AOC issued a statement claiming her vote was about protecting civilians.
The statement reads as follows:
“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.”
AOC’s statement is absolute crap. The Iron Dome is not used for defending, it’s used to facilitate constant attacks.
In an article for Jewish Currents titled “Iron Dome Is Not a Defensive System,” Dylan Saba explains:
“By almost entirely negating the ability of militant groups in Gaza to respond to Israel’s incursions, the purportedly defensive Iron Dome allows Israel to strike without fear of repercussion. And because the cost is so low when measured in Israeli casualties, Israel can wage perpetual war without suffering domestic political consequences, and is under negligible pressure to pursue diplomacy with the Palestinians. ‘In theory, a weapon like Iron Dome could be used only defensively. But in practice it doesn’t work that way,’ analyst Nathan Thrall told Jewish Currents. ‘Iron Dome facilitates greater Israeli offensive measures, because it lowers the perceived cost to Israel of escalating or extending or initiating attacks.’ In other words, while the Iron Dome may prevent the deaths of Israeli non-combatants, it has made it easier for Israel to engage in deadly operations that take Palestinian lives.”
The Iron Dome isn’t for protecting civilians, it’s for protecting the Israeli regime from deterrence. We see this in the comfort the regime displays in waging constant military violence on its neighbors knowing they can’t retaliate. That’s why Israel cut a ceasefire deal with Iran so fast.
Iran’s advanced missiles can’t be reliably stopped by the Iron Dome, so Iran was able to smash Israel and force it to cease its unprovoked aggressions. If Israel had had a missile defense system which could casually swat those missiles out of the sky at a high rate of success, Israel would still be bombing Iran today, and would continue doing so until Tehran looked like Gaza. Israel’s war-horny population would have supported this, because they’d have no skin in the game.
Saying you support funding Israel’s “defensive weapons” while opposing sending it “offensive weapons” is as nonsensical as saying you would never give a mass shooter guns and ammunition, but you would give him body armor to keep him safe from the police. You’re helping him commit mass murder just as much as you would be if you gave him guns and ammo. Kings didn’t arm their knights with shields and armor so that they could live long and fulfilling lives, they did it so the knights would live long enough to kill the people the kings wanted killed.
If you believe a state is committing genocide, there is no justifiable reason for you to support enhancing that state’s military capabilities and helping it defend itself from those who try to stop it. As others have pointed out, this is exactly the same as opposing Hitler’s Holocaust but supporting giving anti-aircraft flak cannons to Nazi Germany.
It’s a self-evidently ridiculous, warmongering, and ultimately genocidal position, disguised as progressive humanitarianism. It’s all the ugliest things about western liberals.
People who say you should criticize AOC less because there are way worse members of congress act like she’s just passively sitting there being a mediocre lawmaker. She’s not. She’s actively anchoring the leftmost edge of the Overton window of US politics to militarism, capitalism, colonialism, and genocide. She’s actively stopping American politics from moving any further left than the nightmare we see before us.
Leftists shouldn’t hate AOC less than the politicians to her right, they should hate her much more. It isn’t Mike Johnson’s responsibility to move the US government to the left, and it’s not Nancy Pelosi’s job. It’s hers. That’s what she was elected to do. That’s what she framed the goals of her entire political career as being. And she’s taking her stand firmly bracing against any leftward movement from America’s genocidal, warmongering, unjust, exploitative, tyrannical status quo.
And that’s what she was actually put there to do. Her real job is to say “thus far and no further” to the leftmost end of the political spectrum of the world’s most powerful and destructive government. That’s the Democratic Party’s job in general, and it’s the job of media-savvy progressive Democrats in particular. They are there to provide as little resistance as possible when US politics are shoved toward more genocidal, militaristic, oligarchic, capitalist, imperialist abuses, and to provide as much inertia as possible to any movement in the opposite direction.
That’s why people who seek leftward movement in the US political machine see AOC as one of their main enemies. It’s for the exact same reason you’d see someone actively blocking the fire exit as your enemy when trying to escape from a burning building.
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