Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an interview last month, described the war in Gaza as a generational political force among younger U.S. voters, comparing it to the impact of the Vietnam War.

“I have said this directly to Democratic leadership. I’ve communicated this to the White House, that this is our [generation’s] Vietnam,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview on “The Majority Report with Sam Seder,” a progressive radio show and podcast. “Not just in terms of the party — this is our country’s Vietnam.”

She argued that Democratic leaders are underestimating the impact that the conflict is having.

“I think what a lot of people do not yet understand is they think that some of these hemorrhages are maybe ideological, they think maybe it is an ethnic thing,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t think there is appreciation yet about how generationally radicalizing this moment is and how shocked people are at how far the general inertia is willing to go, as if we’re not seeing what’s happening right before our eyes.”

She argued that speaking out against Israel and the U.S.’ support for it is the only way to retain “some sort of legitimacy if we seek to reinstate an order around human rights and actual care for democracy.”

The New York progressive suggested that she lost her race to become the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee — a role that will be taken up by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who’s also been critical of Israeli operations in Gaza — in part because of her accusations that Israel is committing genocide and that the U.S. government is complicit.

Ocasio-Cortez, who lost that race, 131-84, said she nevertheless sees it as a “[high] water line” that she was able to muster that much support against a longer-tenured member of the party.

“What do we do with that? I don’t know but it is a chip that we have, and we’ll have to see other people we can elevate and support and see how all of these things interact,” she said.

Even as she has raised her national profile, Ocasio-Cortez remains among the farthest-left Democrats on Israel issues, accusing Israel of genocide and calling for a U.S. arms embargo. She has taken credit for leading the effort to rally votes against U.S. aid. She has also suggested that AIPAC was partly responsible for Democrats’ electoral offices.

But she has also faced criticism from the far left, which has accused her of being insufficiently radical on the issue, including for hosting a webinar on antisemitism and calling out some instances of antisemitism in the anti-Israel movement.