cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33487836
By MEE staff
Published date: 21 July 2025 21:11 BSTThe New York lawmaker voted against an amendment by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene last week that sought to block $500m in Congress’ annual defence spending bill for Israel’s Iron Dome programme.
Fellow Democrats Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar [as well as Democrats Al Green of Texas, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky - PL] had supported Taylor Greene’s amendment, which eventually lost in a 422-6 vote.
In a post on X on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that Greene’s amendment did “nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of US munitions being used in Gaza”.
The real reason:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/17/pro-israel-money-progressives-congress-challenges
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/03/aipac-israel-spending-democratic-primaries-00144552
https://www.commondreams.org/news/aipac-100-million
https://abcnews.go.com/538/pro-israel-groups-spent-big-oust-squad-members/story?id=113675889
AOC’s post:
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 is a beautifully blooming neoliberal, and it’s time for all to stop worshipping her. She had proven over and over again that she’ll vote for neo-liberal interests above all and justify it by wrapping it with a bow of humanity.
Think of all the American lives that could be saved with that money before you justify spending on the iron dome to protect foreigners from the consequences of committing Genocide. AOC is not your friend.
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There are two types of people who use the term neo liberal, people spreading Russian propaganda, and people who consume it
The term for the predominant political and economic theory implemented by American and European powers since the 1980s is just Russian propaganda now?
What the hell else is supposed to be used instead?
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She’s not a neo liberal… Maybe she’ll become a liberal at worst
I believe she’s a good person, I believe she’s a true blue progressive…I just think she has terrible political instincts. It seems like she’s making backroom deals that don’t benefit her positions or even herself
I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. And I don’t think Bernie has been a good influence
We need fighters, and it’s been too long since she actually fought. I still think she’ll be part of the solution, but she’s not panning out into what I hoped she’d be
I believe she’s a good person, I believe she’s a true blue progressive
Everything you typed after this implies the opposite. It’s painful to accept that someone you admired might no longer be who you thought they were. But the sooner you let go of that attachment, the clearer things become. She is not your friend. You do not join the Democratic Party to fight it from within. You join it to become part of its machinery.
Look at her record and measure it against her rhetoric. She voted to fund the Iron Dome in 2021 and then cried on the House floor. That was not courage. That was shame. She has now voted against cutting funding to Israel’s military while bombs are falling on Gaza. She condemns genocide and then votes to fund it. That is not strategy. That is betrayal.
She avoids confrontation with her party even when that party is enabling mass death. She speaks of justice, then backs imperial budgets. She delays, reframes, and pacifies while Palestinians are being erased. Her presence is soothing for liberals and neutralizing for movements. She functions as a release valve. She gives you a reason to believe in a system that should be dismantled.
You said she might be making backroom deals that do not benefit her or her ideals. That is what co-optation looks like. It does not require corruption. It only requires surrender. It happens when staying in the room becomes more important than changing what the room represents.
It is not that she is inactive. It is that she actively helps preserve a violent status quo. That makes her dangerous in a different way. Not because she is cruel, but because she is trusted.
Being disappointed is honest. But if you continue to hold onto the belief that she is still part of the solution, you will miss what she has already become. She is no longer a fighter. She is now a barrier.
regardless of the position on “Israel” genocide, this is tax money going to a foreign country.
According to her, she voted no to this bill. I’m very confused by this article.
She didn’t vote yes to the amendment to the bill to remove defensive funding. She voted no to the whole bill the amendment applied to IIRC.
Ahh, gotcha, so this is just a shit stirring article that tries to send a very misleading message
Gotcha. That makes more sense and I wish articles about this kind of thing made it clearer.
It was an amendment to remove funding for the iron dome. She voted against the amendment.
Big swing and a miss for AOC there.
You just posted evidence that you respond to clickbait headlines without knowing what the article says or is even about. Hallmark of a conservative voter
AOC doesn’t miss. You’re not listening to her or paying attention to the details/fine print. You can fuckin bet she is
She handled this terribly. She has a coherent position, not a great one but one I could accept, but the crash out has been disheartening
Why is this a miss?
AOC’s defense of her vote is a swing and a miss because it rests on a false distinction. She claims the amendment only cuts funding for the Iron Dome (a “defensive” system) and not for the bombs killing Palestinians, but that’s misleading.
The Iron Dome isn’t neutral; it enables Israel to continue bombing Gaza with impunity by shielding it from retaliation. It’s part of the war apparatus, not separate from it.
By opposing this amendment, AOC helped maintain the full structure of US military aid that underwrites the genocide she says she opposes. Her rationale sounds nuanced, but in practice, it protects the status quo.
And while she says she’s focused on cutting offensive munitions, the reality is that the US is sending Israel billions in lethal aid right now, and this amendment was a chance to actually stop some of it. Voting against it doesn’t show strategy; it shows inconsistency and a failure to act when it counts. If you’re serious about ending genocide, like she keeps insisting she is, you take every shot you can. This was one, and she missed it.
That’s generally true, but her handling is the real problem.
It’s not a great position, but the real problem is she’s crashing out over genuine criticism
Because knowing that a response to your aggression is harmless lets you get away with being aggressive. So funding their defense system allows Israel to attack countries in the region, killing people without any due process.
RTFA*
? I googled and checked urban dictionary but it didn’t help.
It’s a variation of the fairly well known “read the fucking manual” (RTFM) only in this case it’s referring to the article, not the manual. Also, there was a typo
Ah, not much I can do if they flub the acronym then. Thanks for the clarification.
Read Fucking The Article.
Cutting off defense seems like a dumb move and I agree with AOC on this. We should cease all offensive weaponry sales as that’s clearly being used in a god damn genocide.
Cutting defense means they would have to shift the budget to defense.
Moreover you’re helping the aggressor protect itself against finding out the consequences of their own action.
Fuck that noise.
Moreover you’re helping the aggressor protect itself against finding out the consequences of their own action.
You literally sound like the pro-genocide people with that statement.
You understand that the Iron Dome is why Israel felt it had the impunity to strike Iran and continued to act belligerent in the region right?
Furthermore withholding all Munitions to a state facilitating genocide is the bare minimum. Regardless of the intended purpose any Munition can be turned offensive.
Finally even if Israel didn’t have the resupply for the Iron Dome and had to supply their own budget it would not guarantee a genocide against the Israeli people. Saying anything of the such is stupid and undermines the control of the United States has in that area with its massive aircraft carriers that carry the power of a small state with them.
I don’t know why you’re directing all that at me. I just said they sounded the exact same as the pro-genocide arguments I’ve heard.
Explain how the statement is pro genocide?
Literally giving aid to Palestinians or threatening to stop funding Israel is seen as helping the aggressor protect itself from the consequences of their actions. Pretty straightforward. A lot of people see all the genocide as 100% justified.
Hamas did some really brutal shit. That doesn’t justify murdering people.
Only person here making pro-genocide arguments here is you.
Fucking both-siding genocidal fuck.
You’re not clever and it is clear what you are doing.
Edit: to be absolutely clear: you are pro-grnocide and you’re trying to justify it by sounding anti-genocide. But you, personally, are bad at rheoteric, and it would be clear to a child what you are doing.
Israel should be their own nation. No money for anything to a country committing genocide.
How does restricting Israel’s defense assets from the United States, which they are perfectly capable of manufacturing on their own, result in murdering people? Is the United States immediately going to strike Israel with missiles?
The only people claiming that giving Aid to Palestinians is funding terrorists are Israel in the United States everybody else pretty universally agrees they giving Aid the Palestinians is not funding “terrorist” groups. This is an especially stupid example given the fact that Bibi has admitted to funding Isis groups to disrupt Hamas activities as recently as last month.
a lot of people all see the genocide as 100% Justified.
Yeah so did the Germans in World War II. That’s a wonderful argument you’re making. 🤦
So I’m going to predict you’re not going to give me a straight answer because you and I both know what the answer actually is. But let’s try this again so that you can at least try to prove that you’re not just a fool who came in here without any fact to back up your opinion.
How does removing $500 million of United States tax dollars from the Israeli defense assets endorse genocide, and as a follow-up, justify murder?
Funding is funding.
Cut it all off.
The people in the comments saying that the Iron Dome allows Israel to continue to pogrom Palestinians are hypocrites and nihilists. It is technically true. Israel without a defense system would be destroyed very quickly, becoming like Gaza and unable to do anything. But don’t mask this as if this would somehow bring peace in any way other than that after a complete nuclear holocaust, the earth would be peaceful. Just say you want Israel to be wiped off from the map.
Israel shouldn’t exist. It’s a country that literally stole land from Palestine.
Sucks. I still hope she ends up as prez or senate majority leader. She’s the best we got.
So, we have MTG voting to not fund and AOC to fund? What’s going on? Is the earth now spinning in reverse or something?
She didn’t vote to fund, she voted against cutting the iron dome expenditures on an amendment
It’s not a great look, but the way she’s handled it has been far more disappointing
So, continue funding?
No, RTFA
Did you actually read the article? If you did, did you catch the word salad in her X‑post? She’s basically trusting that when we say “this money is for your defense system, the Iron Dome” Israel will actually use it just for the Iron Dome, and only the Iron Dome.
Also, does this make sense to you at all? Like do you agree with this?“Along with other US-funded interceptor systems, the Iron Dome has emboldened Israel to invade or bomb no less than five different countries in the past two years.”
Israel isn’t such an honest country that they’ll use the money we send them according to our allocations. She fucked up big time and now she’s trying to defend her fuck up and is doing a terrible job.
Yes XYZB.
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