Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly committed on Tuesday to opposing “any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called defensive capabilities” for Israel as well as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, according to an editor from City & State New York.

The New York Democrat made the comments on a Democratic Socialists of America endorsement call on Tuesday evening.

“I believe the Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment. Consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and U.S. law,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. 

“Netanyahu’s allies in the Knesset just approved a $45 billion defense budget, and the Prime Minister himself also asserted his interest in withdrawing from the MOU in January,” she continued. “It is fully within their ability to fund Iron Dome and other defensive systems. Our allies who need our military aid must understand that we will provide it consistent with the Leahy amendment and the foreign assistance act.”

Though Ocasio-Cortez has not voted in favor of aid to Israel, she did vote against an amendment last year by then-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to cut funding for defensive systems such as Iron Dome, earning the ire of the far left.

“I have not once ever voted to authorize funding to Israel, and I will never,” Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said during the forum. “The Israeli government should be able to finance their own weapons if they seek to arm themselves.”

The systems in question have no offensive use, and are only used to intercept incoming attacks on Israel. Just five lawmakers — Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Al Green (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — voted with Greene on the amendment.

Last year, Ocasio-Cortez framed the vote as a clear choice.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment does nothing to cut off offensive aid to Israel nor end the flow of U.S. munitions being used in Gaza. Of course I voted against it,” she said. “What it does do is cut off defensive Iron Dome capacities while allowing the actual bombs killing Palestinians to continue. I have long stated that I do not believe that adding to the death count of innocent victims to this war is constructive to its end. That is a simple and clear difference of opinion that has long been established.”

Some on the far left have resurfaced that vote in recent days to criticize Ocasio-Cortez, and circulated a petition opposing an endorsement if she didn’t change her stance. During a standalone vote in 2021 on Iron Dome funding, Ocasio-Cortez ultimately voted present, but said she regretted not voting against the funding.

She suggested on the forum that DSA members were misrepresenting her record in a way that would make it harder to grow the group’s membership. “It does not benefit us as a movement, because I see when we try to persuade our colleagues, I see the effect that that has when people feel like if they vote our way, they are just going to be lied about anyway,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez’s commitment to the DSA suggests she has no plans of moderating her stance on Israel — even to support purely defensive systems that still enjoy support among progressives critical of Israel — as she looks toward a potential bid for higher office.

Though she voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the Department of Education’s use of the IHRA definition, Ocasio-Cortez still took heat from the far left for voting for a nonbinding resolution expressing support for the State Department’s global guidelines on combating antisemitism.

Those nonbinding recommendations, issued by the State Department under the Biden administration and dozens of international partners, recommend that governments around the world adopt the IHRA definition.

Just 21 House members — mostly from the right wing of the GOP — voted against the resolution, including Omar, Tlaib and then-Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who were the only Democrats to oppose the resolution.