By Bruce Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Jews cannot be blamed if they wonder whether U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling us Christ-killers. She posted two anti-Israel Instagram messages during Christmas that links Gazans to Jesus.
Congress must respond. She deserves to be expelled from the House as much as George Santos who, like her, represented portions of Queens in New York City. If they cannot scare up the necessary two-thirds vote, the majority should at least vote to censure her.
We are now tolerating the presence on Capitol Hill of a House member whose vague postings imply that Jews, or some Jews, are repeating the crucifixion of Jesus by killing thousands of Palestinians who live in Gaza.
Christians have historically accused Jews of killing Jesus two millennia ago with a charge that has led to all kinds of persecution. It culminated with the Holocaust when Nazi Germany slaughtered 6 million Jews. Antisemitism has lessened but it returned with full force during the last two decades. Antisemitism has been attributed to both the right and left.
AOC, as Ocasio-Cortez is known, opened the floodgates on Christmas day when she wrote that Jesus was born in “modern-day Palestine” under a government-carrying out “a massacre of innocents,” according to New York Jewish Week. The New Testament says that Jesus was a Jew who lived within the modern borders of Israel and was killed by Roman forces that governed the territory then.
“He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power,” she wrote, ”Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians.”
AOC’s post avoided any references to Hamas, Israeli hostages in Gaza or the Oct. 7 raid in southern Israel that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives, according to Jewish Week.
She posted a second message on Monday which was a video of Rev. Munther Isaac, a Lutheran cleric in Bethlehem delivering a sermon with a similar view, Jewish Week reports. She wrote in the post, “When we justify the bombing of children, Jesus is under the rubble.”
Does this mean the Jews killed Jesus again by killing the children of Gaza?
A member of Congress does not need to be indicted for alleged criminal offenses like Santos to qualify for expulsion, but a high level of disgusting conduct is sufficient.
The accusation that the Jewish people killed Jesus is the worst charge that can be leveled against us. It is the basis for 2,000 years of persecution. It is dreadful enough when a private citizen makes such a comment, but Americans cannot tolerate such remarks by an elected office-holder who has been entrusted with power over our lives.
AOC has made anti-Israel comments in the past, but nothing this demonizing. Her Christmas messages are so confusing that one can only speculate as to what she means. It sounds like she fell short of accusing all Jews of deicide, but it is dangerous to connect the current conflict to the crucification of Jesus. It could readily incite more antisemitic acts on the street.
Expulsion she deserves, but that is unlikely because most of her fellow Democrats will probably support her. Republicans may gladly vote her out, but they need a two-thirds vote and their majority in the House is too narrow. Santos was expelled on Dec. 1 because he was an embarrassment to the GOP, and Democrats were pleased to deprive Republicans of a congressional seat.
A special election is scheduled in a few months to replace Santos, who represented much of Nassau County and part of Queens.
AOC is one of the most hated House members among her peers, including some Democrats, because of her unusual actions, her social-justice goals and some anti-Israel attitudes. I appreciate her stance on social issues, but like other Jews I was furious over some of her Middle East views. She represents portions of Queens and the Bronx.
Republicans can at least hold a vote to censure her, which requires a majority vote. They will get their chance when they reconvene in the new year. Let them make that a New Year’s resolution.
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Bruce Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist
B”H AOC has rapidly been tumbling from the heights of promising expectation when she was a freshman House member in 2020. Her progressive agenda mirrored the incoming Biden Administration; except, we’d soon find to our acute distress, she joined forces with a notorious squad of newcomers bent on demonizing the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel. The Israel-Gaza War has opened the floodgates for her, and her like-minded extremists to veer into anti-Semitic territory —- even unitilizing the anti-Jewish tropes of discredited (except for Orthodoxy), equating the Gazans to the crucifixion; appearing to kill Christianity’s savior twice! Of course, the non-ignorant-intolerant-bigoted know that it was the Romans who terminated life with prejudice by crucifying. Jews recorded stoning as the method for capital cases, but never used it! As to the practical challenge AOC presents to her Democratic colleagues to temper her outragegeousness, censure is preferrable: it severely chastises a member who has no respect for truth, without attempting to curb free speech (throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water)! And, please, let’s not attack liberals —- would anyone choose to be illiberal? —- for such people are generally to be treasured in our society so saddled with narrowness of thought. A good attitude to adopt in the new secular year 2024. Amen. With fraternal affection, Asher 🙏😢🇺🇸😩
Hello , AOC cried at the border when Trump put some children in cages for a short time while trying to figure it out . Children are being abused, fentanyl is killing people and people are dying and yet not a word . Problem is she can’t speak out against what is happening at the border because it doesn’t fit the so called liberal playbook .