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AOC blasts ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu for protesting ‘inconceivable’ arms halt, avers he shouldn't address US Congress
AOC lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as "war criminal" and accused him of having no respect for US law.
Ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, lambasted the Israeli Prime Minister as "war criminal" and accused him of having no respect for US law.
Netanyahu has been invited by the House and Senate leaders to address Congress on July 24, despite growing disagreements in politics over Israel's military attacks on Hamas in Gaza.
The letter inviting the Israeli PM was signed by both GOP and Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. According to them, the goal of the proposal is to "highlight America's solidarity with Israel."
However, some other members of the Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are not in favor of Netanyahu's address.
Taking to X, AOC shared a video in which Netanyahu can be heard targeting the Biden administration over “inconceivable” arms halt.
This comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on May 1. The Israeli PM went on the record on Tuesday, saying that he had received assurances from Blinken that Washington would lift all limitations on arms deliveries to Israel.
“I told Secretary Blinken it's inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel,” he said.
Responding to the video, AOC chastised Netanyahu and said: “This man should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal. And he certainly has no regard for US law, which is explicitly designed to prevent US weapons from facilitating human rights abuses.”
She further demanded that his “invitation should be revoked”, adding that “it should’ve never been sent in the 1st place.”
Blinken and White House reject Netanyahu's statement
During a press conference in Washington, Blinken was asked to verify Netanyahu's remarks regarding their meeting. The top US ambassador insisted that only one shipment had been blocked, suggesting that the Israeli PM was overstating the US' move.
"I'm not going to talk about what we said in diplomatic conversations," he stated in response to another question regarding if Netanyahu was telling the truth.
When questioned about the Israeli PM's assertion during a news conference, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday rejected Netanyahu's claim.
“We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t,” she said.
Jean-Pierre further stressed that only one shipment of munitions was halted. “We continue to have constructive conversations with the Israelis for the release of that particular shipment and don’t have any updates on that. There are no other pauses or holds in place… Everything else is moving in due process,” she asserted.
Netizens react as AOC fiercely slammed Netanyahu
Meanwhile, AOC's post received mixed reactions from the X users, with some hitting back at her for calling Netanyahu a “war criminal”.
“AOC should go back to bartending,” one user wrote.
“And you should be doing laundry and making sandwiches,” another added.
“To any member of the Jewish community seeing this post, remember that a vote for democrats this November is a vote for Hamas. We had peace in the Middle East under President Trump. It’s time for change,” The Persistence commented.
A fourth user quipped, “Should I like this meme?”
