Dershowitz: AOC’s rejection of Yitzhak Rabin memorial crosses the line from extremism to intolerance

Tellingly, she now operates through an organization called Jacobin, named after French revolutionaries who descended into barbarity and mass murder.

By Alan Dershowitz, Algemeiner

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the young folk hero commonly known as AOC, has crossed the line from radicalism to anti-Americanism and anti-decency.

Tellingly, she now operates through an organization called Jacobin, named after French revolutionaries who descended into barbarity and mass murder.

Indeed, the word terrorism arises from the “reign of terror” of which they were an important part.

By identifying with such violent radicals, AOC sounds a dog whistle to violent organizations such as Antifa and others on the hard-Left who want revolution not evolution.

AOC’s most recent manifestation of support for violence is her campaign to “defund the police.” This is what her most recent ad “From: Ocasio Cortez via Jacobin” says: “Right now most major cities in America are channeling huge war chests of money into police departments…”

That is a blatant falsehood.

Police men and women around the country suffer from extremely low pay. They are working people who put their lives at risk every day to defend the most vulnerable among us.

Law enforcement needs more funding, not defunding.

More funding would pay for better police training, better non-lethal weapons, better community policing and better protection for vulnerable victims, many of whom live in minority communities.

AOC and her fellow revolutionaries believe that today’s world is “based on racist, violent policing…”

This paints with far too broad a brush. I know many police officers, FBI, secret service, and other members of law enforcement. I am generally on the opposite side of them in the courtroom.

But the vast, vast majority of them are honest, decent, hardworking people who have devoted their lives to protecting the rest of us and most especially those most subject to victimization in high crime areas.

The last thing they ever want to do is fire their service revolvers at anyone, most especially anyone innocent.

They are not murderers as AOC characterizes them, calling the tragic death of Breonna Taylor a “murder,” despite evidence that the police fired in response to a shot from her boyfriend that hit and nearly killed an officer.

Such bigotry against police officers and such generalizations about racism, are to be condemned by all decent people.

AOC’s indecency was also recently manifested when she was invited by a pro-peace left wing Jewish organization to commemorate the death of Israel’s great peace maker, Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin was assassinated by a hard-Right extremist who opposed Rabin’s efforts to make peace with the Palestinians and to recognize a Palestinian state. AOC originally accepted an invitation to appear at the event but after being pressured by virulent anti-Zionists who believe that Israel has no right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people, she backed out.

AOC’s cowardly decision not to stand up to anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bigotry is being applauded by fellow bigots on the hard-Left.

When AOC was first elected, I urged leaders of the Jewish community to reach out to her in order to educate her about Israel’s history and its enormous contribution to the well-being of the planet.

No country in history has ever done so much good for humanity in so short a period of time as in the 72 years since Israel has come into existence. Efforts were made to reach out to her to invite her to visit Israel to meet with Jewish leaders on the Left, and most recently to join in honoring Israel’s peace martyr Yitzhak Rabin.

She has rebuffed all efforts to build bridges to the pro-Israel community — even its most left wing members.

Although she has been deliberately vague about her position with regard to Israel, it now seems evidently clear that she does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and to live in peace as the nation state of the Jewish people.

If she did, she would not have refused to attend the pro-peace memorial to Rabin.

AOC has now crossed the line from radicalism to bigotry, from extremism to intolerance and from ignorance to willful mendacity. AOC is no longer a friend of liberalism, of mainstream Judaism or of basic decency. She is an enemy whose bigotry must be confronted at every turn and whose lies must be responded to with truth.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of “Guilt by Accusation” and “The Case Against the Democratic House Impeaching Trump.”

This article was originally published by Newsmax.

alan dershowitzAlexandria Ocasio-Cortezanti-Israelanti-Semitism