The New York congresswoman slammed Israel for being “a government engaged in a massacre of innocents” without mentioning the Hamas atrocities that set off the war.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Critics are panning the Christmas eve message Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted on social media Sunday that compared the persecution of Jesus to the current situation of Palestinians in Gaza and likened Israel to his Roman executioners.
“Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” she wrote in part in her Instagram story. “He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power. Mary and Joseph, displaced by violence and forced to flee, became refugees in Egypt with a newborn waiting to one day return home.”
The congresswoman long known for her anti-Israel views then blasted the Jewish state as “right-wing forces” that “are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians.”
Along with praying, she wrote, “for the peace and protection of the innocent in Gaza and the occupied territories,” she called the youth of Gaza “holy children [who] are still being born in a place of unspeakable violence.”
She did not mention the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel, when its terrorist forces massacred 1,200 people in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, which is what set off the ongoing war in the coastal enclave.
Many of those who responded online mentioned this lack of context by Ocasio-Cortez, known by her initials, AOC.
The Forward’s senior political reporter Jacob N. Kornbluh noted that “AOC describes Israel as a ‘violent right wing occupying force’ in Christmas post. No mention of Hamas terror, the victims of Oct. 7 attack.”
Other users slammed her for missing other details, as well as for being an antisemite.
One posted to X, “AOC shows how much she hates Jews with deplorable Christmas message failing to mention hostages held.”
Another, who tagged herself as an educator, wrote, “And no mention of hostages and rape. Her Jew hate is really showing here.”
Hamas and other terrorist organizations abducted some 250 people during the slaughter. About 129 are still believed to be scattered in Gaza alive after just over a hundred were released in a deal in late November. Forensic analysis and eyewitness testimony has revealed that the terrorists systematically committed horrific sexual abuse of many victims before murdering them.
The progressive Democrat has repeatedly called for the U.S. to pressure Israel into a ceasefire before it can eradicate the threat that Hamas has proven it is to the security of the Jewish state.