Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., reignited false accusations against Israel at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, claiming that U.S. aid to the Jewish state enabled genocide in Gaza. Her remarks landed in Munich, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement, which carried out the Holocaust, the deadliest genocide in human history. The timing and location of her statement intensified the outrage, drawing sharp criticism from military analysts, scholars, and pro-Israel advocates.
During the town hall, Ocasio-Cortez said, “To me, this isn’t just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws. And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza. And I think that we have thousands of women and children dead that don’t, that was completely avoidable.” She continued, “And, so I believe that enforcement of our own laws through the Leahy laws, which requires conditioning aid in any circumstance, when you see gross human rights violations, is appropriate.”
The Leahy Laws, enacted beginning in 1997, prohibit U.S. funding of foreign security forces when there is credible information that the unit has committed gross human rights violations. Ocasio-Cortez framed Israel’s campaign against Hamas, the U.S. and EU-designated terrorist organization, as a violation of these provisions, despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel meticulously avoids civilian harm in wartime operations.
Tom Gross, an international affairs expert, criticized Ocasio-Cortez, telling Fox News, “AOC has flown all the way to Munich — infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch — in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation. Such preposterous allegations of ‘genocide’ form the bedrock of modern antisemitic incitement against Jews in the U.S. and globally.”
Military historian Danny Orbach of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, co-author of Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023, to June 1, 2025, explained that Ocasio-Cortez’s claim is factually and legally baseless. “Under the Genocide Convention, genocide requires proof of a special intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part, and a baseline condition of actively seeking to maximize civilian destruction,” Orbach said. “The evidence shows the opposite. Israel established humanitarian safe zones, issued advance warnings of strikes, and facilitated over two million tons of humanitarian aid, often at the cost of its own military advantage, including the loss of surprise and sustaining an enemy during wartime.”
Israel undertook these measures despite the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, which saw over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals killed and 251 abducted into Gaza. Hamas’s tactics included human shields, attacks from hospitals, and a tunnel network exceeding 1,000 kilometers. Orbach concluded, “No credible evidence demonstrates the kind of unambiguous, exclusive genocidal intent toward Palestinians that international law requires.”
Ocasio-Cortez is not alone in the House of Representatives in making these false claims. Progressive Democrats, including Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Al Green (D-Tex.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Greg Casar (D-Tex.), Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) have all used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s defensive war. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) also repeated the claim in August. Notably, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is the only non-Democrat on the list.
Sen. John Fetterman slammed AOC for attacking Israel over “genocide” but being silent on Iran “Why is she so EAGER to criticize Israel, but I don’t recall her saying ANYTHING as Iran executed thousands of protestors! There was never a genocide in Gaza.”
Israel’s self-defense is guided by a principle of proportionality and adherence to humanitarian measures, even when facing an enemy that embeds itself within civilian populations. These progressive claims threaten not only Israel’s security but also the truth of history and the integrity of U.S. foreign aid policy. The repeated use of false genocide allegations serves to weaponize history against the Jewish state and to delegitimize the only democracy in the Middle East combating a relentless terrorist threat.
