US Democrat who accused Israel of ‘massacre’ admits no expert on Mideast

“I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue, I just look at things through a human rights lens and I may not use the right words,” Ocasio Cortez said of her knowledge on Israel after slamming the Jewish state. 

By: World Israel News Staff

Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who accused Israel committing a “massacre” in the Gaza Strip, admitted she is “not an expert” on Israel or the Middle East.

In an interview with PBS‘s Firing Line on Friday, she slammed Israel’s “occupation of Palestine” but when pressed on the issue, admitted she was “not the expert” on the facts.

Asked what her position was on Israel, Ocasio-Cortez responded that she “absolutely” believed in Israel’s right to exist and that she was “a proponent of a two-state solution.”

Speaking of the recent Hamas-led violent riots on Israel’s border with Gaza, she said that “the lens through which I saw this incident, as an activist, as an organizer – if 60 people were killed in Ferguson, Missouri, if 60 people were killed in the South Bronx, unarmed, if 60 people were killed in Puerto Rico – I just look at that incident more through just, as an incident, and to me, it would just be completely unacceptable if that happened on our shores.”

Ocasio Cortez was referring to the 60 Palestinians killed during the riots on May 14. By Hamas’ own admission, the vast majority were terrorists.

On that day she tweeted that Israel’s killing of Palestinians along the Gaza border was a “massacre” and that “no state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters.”

‘Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore’

“There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else,” she said. “Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore.”

In the interview, she said, “I also think that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation … of Palestine just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition, and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”

The interviewer asked Ocasio-Cortez to clarify her comments, and she paused before saying: “I think what I meant is like the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas in places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes.”

Apparently stuck for facts, Ocasio-Cortez summed up the issue by saying, “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue,” and “I just look at things through a human rights lens and I may not use the right words… Middle Eastern politics is not exactly at my kitchen table every night.”

Exposed as ‘clueless’

Ocasio-Cortez’s jumbled statements led to broad condemnation of her stances, while some said that the interview exposed her as “clueless.”

Seth Mandel, op-ed editor of the New York Post, tweeted that “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing a great service. Her argument is twofold: Israel a colonizing occupier of Palestine, and that she doesn’t know anything about the conflict.”

“Accurate: those who think this have no idea what they’re talking about. At least she’s honest,” he added.

Ocasio-Cortez “bashes Israel while admitting she is clueless about what is going on there. She simply toes the far-left, radical agenda. Elected Democrats are endorsing this when they endorse her,” the Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted.

Ocasio-Cortez, 28, who soundly defeated Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in a primary for New York’s 14th congressional district last month, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supports the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

Ocasio-Cortez will face Republican Anthony Pappas in November. She has never held elected office.

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