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.”
yes, I agree with this point - maybe not to the point of saying we should dismantle the Iron Dome from protecting civilians, but you are right that the Iron Dome acts as a kind of enabler - providing psychological safety to Israelis that undermines political will to end and avoid conflict.
But I'm not sure the civilians are necessarily the best targets in the first place - there have been massive protests against the current government, and I'm not sure we should really consider Israel a particularly democratic state.
Also, Israel has been genocidal for many decades now, including through decades under which many Israelis had to take cover under bomb shelters, so the Iron Dome is probably not the most relevant factor in whether Israel continues on its path.