Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative, said on Wednesday that she will oppose any future US military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.

In a statement on social media, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel was fully capable of funding “Iron Dome and other defensive systems”, and that “consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law”.

Her remarks on Wednesday follow reports that she pledged to oppose any future military aid to Israel during a New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) forum on Tuesday evening.

“Our allies who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment and the foreign assistance act”, Ocasio-Cortez added, referring to a law which prohibits the US from providing military support to army units that violate human rights.

According to City & State, which obtained a partial recording of the DSA forum, Ocasio-Cortez told members: “I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” adding that “the Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    My favorite Democrat, if only she was the norm.

    Come to think of it, she’s the only Democrat who I don’t find infuriating… the last time I researched one (Maxine Waters) I was revolted

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    How about any aid at all? That country needs a lot of things, democracy, ethics, morals, but it does not need aid for anything

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Shoulda done that years ago. We wouldn’t be in this predicament today had that been done. She offered criticism of Israel, but when push came to shove she didn’t rock the boat when voting time came and she changed her vote away from “no” to fund Israel’s Iron Dome.

    • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Washington is literally occupied by Israeli assets. This should absolutely be the norm but it’s not so we need to keep pressing. If it were up to me we’d start arresting Israeli backed politicians for treason but as it is were in hell so I’ll give credit where credit is due

    • bassow@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Hate on the politicians not moving, not on those moving too slow for your liking. This shit is why you have Trumpaloompa now.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Give em a bill and charge interest every year.

      If they don’t pay, most of the global economy still runs thru NYC, if we sanction their leaders and oligarchs instead of random ass “settlers” who don’t even have a bank account, we could apply real pressure for their government to pay.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Israel does not owe the US for weapons, because they are gifts. The nominally loans are immediately forgiven by state dept.

        • architect@thelemmy.club
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          23 hours ago

          I love how you watch as potus does whatever the fuck he wants and still thinks “oh we have precedent for this” is something anyone should give one singular fuck about.

          How about this: we are going to vote for the people that will claw back every fucking penny from that country we can. They fucking owe us.

        • Velma@lemmy.today
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          2 days ago

          They should owe though. It’s disgusting that we continue to gift weapons for a genocide while we refuse to fund things like universal healthcare here at home.

        • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          Yeah but it is what the US says it is. We could just state otherwise, you owe us, fuck you pay us. Not going to happen as they have our politicians compromised, with the CIA’s help it appears. How about some fucking court martials for helping foreign governments compromise our politicians? Death penalty.

          • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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            2 days ago

            forgiving a loan is a permanent contract. You can validly say that everyone who previously cancelled loans were traitorous scum, as a basis for conditions for future sales to Israel, and seizing assets of all “supposed Americans” of those who bribed the traitorous scum as restitution. But cancelled loans themselves are without legal restitution.

            I prefer seizing the $10T of Zionazi agents and funding of Zionazi first rule over America to death penalties.

            • architect@thelemmy.club
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              23 hours ago

              Oh is it? Tell that to all the fucking student loans that were forgiven they went back on. No, it’s clearly not fucking permanent. So we are done here.

            • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              Idk what you are talking about. I said the US officials that helped compromise our citizens for a foreign country are traitors. You have a problem with that?

              As far as forgiving loans, Israel wasn’t loaned anything, we gave it to them, that’s the whole point here. But yes, we have cancelled loans before, including in the Magna Carta

              • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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                2 days ago

                As far as forgiving loans, Israel wasn’t loaned anything, we gave it to them,

                The contractual shenanigans of gifting weapons to Israel is that they are sold with a loan. The state department immediately forgives the loan.

                the US officials that helped compromise our citizens for a foreign country are traitors.

                I agree. I prefer seizing their and their donors wealth instead of death penalty.

  • canniest_tod@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Better late than never, but the left coalition of the party could have done this 75,000 Palestinians ago.

    • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Which one of these you linked is providing funding to Israel?

      In order:

      H.R.5917

      This bill extends the authority of the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons using human shields through 2030 and requires the President to impose such sanctions on each foreign person determined to be a member of Palestine Islamic Jihad and orders, controls, or otherwise directs the use of human shields. Currently, such sanctions are (1) required for users of human shields who are members of Hamas or Hezbollah or supporters of those groups, and (2) authorized for other users of human shields.

      The President must also determine if a person named in certain congressional requests meets the criteria for such sanctions and report on whether the President intends to impose sanctions on that person.

      Additionally, the Department of Defense must report to Congress on the implications of the use of human shields by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestine Islamic Jihad.

      H.R.5961

      This bill requires the President to impose property-blocking sanctions on foreign financial institutions and international financial institutions that process, participate in, or facilitate a transaction involving certain Iranian funds (namely, the approximately $6 billion of Iranian funds that the Biden administration permitted to be transferred from restricted accounts in South Korea to restricted accounts in Qatar to facilitate the release of five U.S. citizens detained in Iran).

      H.R.6679

      This bill imposes immigration-related penalties on certain non-U.S. nationals (aliens under federal law) who are involved with terrorism or attacks against Israel.

      Under this bill, members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad or Hamas or who participated in or otherwise facilitated the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel may not be admitted into the United States.

      The bill also expands an existing admissions bar against officers, representatives, and spokespersons of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Under this bill, all PLO members are barred from admission into the United States.

      The bill also prohibits any non-U.S. national who participated in or otherwise facilitated the October 7, 2023, attacks from seeking any immigration-related relief or protections, including (1) protection from being deported to a country where the individual’s life or freedom would be threatened, or (2) asylum in the United States.

      • SinAdjetivos@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Summaries are generally misleading.

        Full text for H.R.5917: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5917/text where it outlines the modifications to public law 115-348 which according to Sec. 3.d authorizes usage of the IEEPA to enforce sanctions.

        Israel then directly receives defense spending to enforce those sanctions as well as indirectly being funded via any seized assets that are found in violation of those sanctions as “reperations”. Here’s an example of a $500Mil funding source.

        H.R.5961 uses essentially the same mechanism but targets Iran specifically redirecting a large chunk of the $6B mentioned towards Israel.

        You are correct that H.R.6679 isn’t about funding, but I still felt it was important to include.

      • Velma@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        H.R.4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act

        Sec. 8067. Of the amounts appropriated in this Act under the headings “Procurement, Defense-Wide” and “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”, $500,000,000 shall be for the Israeli Cooperative Programs: Provided, That of this amount, $60,000,000 shall be for the Secretary of Defense to provide to the Government of Israel for the procurement of the Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats, subject to the U.S.-Israel Iron Dome Procurement Agreement; $127,000,000 shall be for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) program, including cruise missile defense research and development under the SRBMD program; $40,000,000 shall be for co-production activities of SRBMD systems in the United States and in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements consistent with each nation’s laws, regulations, and procedures, subject to the U.S.-Israeli co-production agreement for SRBMD; $100,000,000 shall be for an upper-tier component to the Israeli Missile Defense Architecture, of which $100,000,000 shall be for co-production activities of Arrow 3 Upper Tier systems in the United States and in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements consistent with each nation’s laws, regulations, and procedures, subject to the U.S.-Israeli co-production agreement for Arrow 3 Upper Tier; and $173,000,000 shall be for the Arrow System Improvement Program including development of a long range, ground and airborne, detection suite.

        This is what AOC voted on in regard to Israel and the Iron Dome.

        MTG had offered an amendment that would cut the funding for Israeli defense and AOC voted against it, allowing the funds to remain in the bill.