AOC submits (again) to anti-Zionist demands
AOC pulls out of far-left Jewish event to mollify outraged anti-Zionists, and continues to rebuff meetings with mainstream Jews.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—darling of the far-left and heroine of the anti-Israel lobby—recently canceled an appearance sponsored by far left ‘pro-Israel’ groups, and reportedly is avoiding meeting with mainstream Jewish groups. In this post, I go over the background of how we got here.
[toc]
AOC Ignores Mainstream Jewish Community Leaders…
On October 2, The Jewish Insider reported,
Not long after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pulled off a surprise upset in the June 2018 Democratic congressional primary, Michael S. Miller, executive vice president and CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, reached out to set up an in-person meeting.
…Miller, whose organization represents the Jewish community to New York government officials and counts more than 50 local Jewish groups as members, had hoped to begin a dialogue with the young progressive upstart — and, after speaking with her chief of staff, was informed that a meeting with Ocasio-Cortez would be arranged. Two years and multiple follow-ups later, Miller is still waiting on her call.
“That was October of 2018,” Miller said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re now on the verge of October 2020, and I have yet to meet with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
“There is a lot of frustration,” he sighed.
Miller isn’t alone among New York’s Jewish leaders in wondering why Ocasio-Cortez, who is poised to be reelected to a second term in November, won’t return their calls. In interviews with JI, several prominent members of New York’s Jewish community said they have made overtures to the freshman congresswoman, who turns 31 this month, only to have their entreaties be ignored.
“We were prepared to meet, but there was no reciprocity,” said Rabbi Joe Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, recalling an experience similar to Miller’s. “When I spoke to her she was like, ‘Of course.’ But when it came to arranging a meeting, no response.”
“I don’t know what her reasoning is,” he added with a sense of befuddlement. “I think she has to explain why, as a member of Congress who meets with all different kinds of groups, she’s not willing to meet with us.”
…Amanda Berman, founder and executive director of Zioness, a liberal feminist organization that supports progressive and Zionist causes, also…said her organization had made several attempts to set up a meeting with Ocasio-Cortez, all unsuccessful. Afterward, they posted a highly critical but conciliatory open letter on Twitter and forwarded it to the congresswoman’s chief of staff in the hope that they would hear back. Crickets.
…Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said his group reached out to the congresswoman around the time she was elected. “There was no interest demonstrated,” he said.
…But Meets Happily with Anti-Israel Extremists
By contrast, AOC has met happily with the extremist fringe sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews known as the Neturei Karta (though its leadership participated in Holocaust denial conferences in Iran alongside David Duke) and the Islamists from American Muslims for Palestine.
So @AOC won't meet w mainstream Jewish community, incl @ZionessMovement, but will meet w/ anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists from @AMPalestine & Neturei Karta (you know, just those "rabbis" who attend Iran's Holocaust denial conference). WTF. https://t.co/CrmJOmocBj
— Samantha R Mandeles (@SRMandeles) October 4, 2020
The pic @HenMazzig tweeted features @AOC w NK's Yisroel Dovid Weiss (on the right), who spoke at Iran's Holocaust denial con, met repeatedly w homophobe & anti-Semite Ahmadinejad, & was a guest of Hezbollah murderers in Beirut in 2018.
AOC will meet w him, but not @JCRCNY. pic.twitter.com/gBm5k6NmbX
— Samantha R Mandeles (@SRMandeles) October 4, 2020
AOC Confirms Speaking Gig With Americans for Peace Now
As of two weeks ago, AOC was not only willing to meet with the leftist group Americans for Peace Now (APN)—frequently criticized even by liberals for routinely ignoring Palestinian violence and incitement—but even planned to speak at an upcoming APN event commemorating the 25th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s tragic assassination.
(Rabin, a left-wing Israeli prime minister known for his efforts to make peace with Yasser Arafat in 1993 and 1994, was murdered in 1995 by a Jewish extremist who worried that Rabin planned “to give our country to the Arabs.”)
Like radical left or Islamist groups we have covered here (such as CodePink, American Muslims for Palestine, or Electronic Intifada), APN publicly advocates a boycott of “the Occupation”; fiercely opposes the Trump Administration and pro-Israel officials it has appointed; decried the closing of the PLO mission in Washington (despite its requirement due to an Obama-era law); complains about Israel barring entry to BDS supporters; and hosts, defends, and works with advocates for Israel’s destruction (such as Yousef Munayyer of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights).
AOC Attacked by Other ‘Woke’ Anti-Zionists
Yet neither APN’s nor AOC’s lefty anti-Israel credentials appear to be enough for some obsessive anti-Zionists, including writer Ali Abunimah and his Electronic Intifada website. When news broke that AOC planned to speak at APN’s Rabin event, Abunimah penned a lengthy piece attacking her for “honoring an Israeli war criminal”:
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is helping a liberal Zionist group whitewash a war criminal responsible for atrocities against Palestinians.Next month the progressive standard-bearer will be speaking at an Americans for Peace Now event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.“Rabin’s legacy inspires us all,” Americans for Peace Now stated in their announcement of the event.The lobby group urged people to register to hear Ocasio-Cortez “reflect on fulfilling the courageous Israeli leader’s mission for peace and justice today in the US and Israel.”The only feeling this pack of lies should inspire is disgust, especially at Ocasio-Cortez’s willing participation.
AOC Buckles Quickly Under Pressure
Kane later quoted a source as saying that that the invitation to Ocasio-Cortez was not framed as a memorial, but as a review of the Oslo peace process launched by Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1993.
Americans for Peace Now has since Aug. 29 framed the Oct. 20 event as a Rabin memorial. It falls close to the 25th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv, on Nov. 4, 1995.Also scheduled to appear at the event are Rabin’s granddaughter, Noa Rothman, and actor Mandy Patinkin, who last month released a video saying “I’ll be hosting a virtual memorial event for Yitzhak Rabin.”
Conclusion: AOC’s Cowardice
That she thought it necessary to acquiesce to the demands of a Twitter mob — led in this instance by an anti-Zionist writer for the far-left Jewish Currents publication — speaks volumes not only about her ideology, but about the disciplined nature of the intersectional left when it comes to policing its adherents with respect to Israel. Her overt snub of liberal Jews sends a loud message that there is no place for them in the party base if they are not willing to renounce support for Israel’s right to exist.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
You can’t be seen as friendly to certain people if you are wanting to stay friends with Rashida Talib, Ilhan Omar, and whatever the other one’s name is.
Hand-maiden Sandy
Reminds me of how, back in the day, I couldn’t remember but two of the Three Tenors. Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and whoever that third guy was. I always said Enrico Pallazzo. To this day, I still think it’s Enrico Pallazzo.
SO MANY “REASONS”…..TO DISQUALIFY THESE 4 UN-AMERICAN WOMEN! TLAIB, OMAR, PRESSLEY, & “OCRAZIO CORTEZ”!
IT’S QUITE HARD TO UNDERSTAND HOW AMERICA, CAN TOLERATE THESE ‘4″, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE *DEMONCRAT PARTY, & THEIR FOUL, UN-AMERICAN AGENDA! DNC AGANDA, IS UN-AMERICAN, EVIL, & TOTALLY AGAINST ALL THE TENETS OF OUR FORE FATHERS THAT ORIGINATED OUR CONSTITUTION!
HOW CAN THE DEMONCRAT PARTY, STRAY FO FAR FROM DECENCY, & AMERICAN IDEALS?
Don’t hear you! I can shout!
The bottom line is that whatever their shortcomings, America and Israel are civilized, humane countries with some form of the rule of law.
By contrast, AOC and her allies prefer chaos, savagery, terror, and destruction. They despise America and Israel, as well as all the moral and political values they represent.
This is a very stupid woman, and it boggles the mind that she is in Congress.
But then, so is Shelia Jackson Lee, Mazie Hirano and Maxine Waters.
But then, obama became president.
Think about Omar being far less intelligent. Most certainly that whole group cold be struck by lightening, who would care?
Sadly, I doubt she is stupid.
‘Stupid’ to the extent of any awareness of her own amazing ignorance and inabilitiws. But running to the extreme left, she finds constant approval and fawning (like her recent meeting with the Chinesw Communists). If she had to compete by running with the pack, she’d be lost, because she is an empty shell in terms of ability to compete. Like other big mouth dummies, she will run with the communists, because it is the only place ahe can rise above the fray. Her sense of shame is zero.
She’s stupid.
What we need to do is each year we take any and all money spent on behalf of Israel, including the bribe we pay Egypt on Israel’s behalf, and hold a lottery of Social Security numbers of Americans who have direct male ancestors listed in the 1790 Census. Each winner would get one million dollars tax free. We could make almost 5000 Americans a year into millionaires and American tax money would actually goes to help Americans instead of an insignificant nation on the other side of the world. Win Win all the way around!
I favor supporting Israel, they are a good investment and they are the first line of defense against dimwit psychotic murdering Muslims.
What drugs are you on?
Der Fuhrer is dead…get over it.
Israel would be better off without the US money, and without the opinions and interference that come with it. But the US arms industry would be upset, because most of that money has to be spent here, so it’s basically a subsidy to them.
BTW, a large percentage of the so-called “aid” is in the form of loan guarantees, that don’t actually cost the USA a penny.
“… instead of an insignificant nation on the other side of the world.”
Gosh. That gnawing feeling you have that someone isn’t acting in good faith talking about helping Americans when suddenly he reveals his axe to grind.
“I don’t know what her reasoning is,” he added with a sense of befuddlement.
Jesus, these people can’t be that stupid, Can they? How is it possible for Jews to be blind to blatant anti-semitism? it’s one of the real puzzles of modern politics, that Jews will vote for people who think Hitler was right.
Most also vote for gun confiscators.
Google ‘ghosted,’ Mikey.
A few factual notes:
1. Neturei Karta was (and to some extent still is) an extreme fringe religious group, but respectable and respected for their sincerity and devotion to Jewish law as they understood it. There is no dispute that their founder, Rabbi Amram Blau, was a saintly man who was utterly devoid of hatred for anyone. And in his day there was no way that anyone from NK would have made common cause with the PLO or the Iranian mullahs.
The people who grab the headlines and perform all these antics don’t speak for Neturei Karta. They’re a handful of mentally ill people, maybe 20 of them in the USA and 10 more in Europe and Israel, who belong in padded cells. (Their former leader, the late Moshe Hirsch, wasn’t insane, he was on Arafat’s payroll. But I’m not aware of any evidence that anyone else was or is being paid. The rest are just crazy people.)
The authentic NK, which numbers maybe 100 families worldwide, don’t watch TV, use the internet, read newspapers, and to the extent that they’re aware of what these nuts do in their name they’re furious, but there’s little they can do about it. The crazies are not welcome in the main NK synagogue in Jerusalem, and Arafat’s lackey Moshe Hirsch was once attacked with acid when he dared show his face there. But the NK have no contacts in the media who can explain that they’re not the same as the crazies.
2. There was no such thing as the “Lydda Death March”, nor were there any “death marches” in 1948, but they are referring to a real event. The Arabs of the Lod area (Lydda in Arabic) were forcibly expelled from their homes, since their presence there posed a serious danger to the new state of Israel’s very existence. They were a hostile population and Israel just couldn’t have them right in the vulnerable heart of the area they were fighting over. So the government ordered Rabin to clear the area of Arabs. It’s not as if any of those Arabs were peaceful and wanted to live in harmony with the Jews. They were all enemies, even those who didn’t personally bear arms, and clearing them out was vital. There was really no other choice.
But by modern Western standards of warfare it would be called a “war crime”. Thankfully Israel was not then burdened by the judiciary it has now, nor was the IDF burdened by the JAG corps it has now, who would have forbidden the operation. Rabin’s troops forced perhaps 50,000 Arabs to move a few miles up the road, and that was that.
3. It’s quite true that in 1988 Rabin, who was then Defense Minister, ordered the army to put down the Arab violence by breaking bones and basically teaching the Arabs that rioting doesn’t pay. This was common sense, but it was against the law.
4. It’s also not really correct to call Rabin a left-winger. He had no commitment to leftist political principles, or indeed to any principles except advancing his own career. I won’t go into sordid detail here, but let’s just say he was very far from being a saint. But he was also very far from being an Arab-lover. He was pushed into the Oslo Accords by his underlings Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres, who should get the real “credit” for that disaster. I believe Rabin never really thought the Accords would succeed, and was waiting for Arafat to start a full-blown war in which he could be crushed. To achieve that he was willing to sacrifice hundreds of innocent Israel lives, not to mention any number of Arab lives.
Thanks Milhouse. Very helpful.
I do not think that AOC is a coward. She’s a leftist, and she’s anti-Israel, and to AOC her Jewish supporters a merely useful tools.
The following is cynical I know, but the question remains:L How many Jews reflexively vote Democrats because those awful Republicans wouldn’t let them join the country club?
AOC = Lady Skid Marks!
There’s a reason that I call these reprobates “Dhimmi-crats.” They have made a conscious decision to embrace and to advance manifestly contrived, fallacious, slanderous and viciously false Arab Muslim jihadist narratives claiming “victim” status, at the hands of alleged Israeli Jew “oppressors.”
Any politician who helps to advance this narrative is evil.
The contemporary Dhimmi-crat Party is now the single largest propagator and facilitator of Jew-hate, outside of the Muslim community, itself. Look at how the Dhimmi-crat jackboots in “Anti-fa” and in “Black Lives Matter” have desecrated and vandalized synagogues across the U.S., with zero media attention and zero condemnation from Dhimmi-crat leaders, including dim-witted, dotard-marionette, Biden.
Ponder how we got to a place where Dhimmi-crats believe that Iran and Saudi Arabia are more morally upright actors, than Israel. Ponder why the Dhimmi-crats are so heavily invested in painting the adherents of the ideology of Submission as victims, and, why the Dhimmi-crats are so invested in whitewashing the intrinsic pathologies of Submission — supremacism, totalitarianism, belligerence, misogyny and hatred of non-Muslims.
What a painfully stupid human being this dingbat AOC is. What’s scary is there are people who admire and vote for her and fill a room to listen to her. And who knows how many “AOCs” are waiting in the wings to run for public office that might be even dumber than her.
Jewish voters should NOT vote for HER, or any other Democrat ! The whole Democrat Party has changed to a bunch of anti-semitic people, who will NEVER stand behind the Jewish people, OR Israel ! WAKE UP !
“Submits”?
What makes you think her desires are any different than your garden variety antisemite? She did what she wanted to do.
So will these Jews vote for the Democrats anyway?