Ocasio-Cortez rebukes Marjorie Taylor Greene over Gaza split
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said marjorie taylor greene is not someone she trusts on Gaza and Israeli issues. Speaking last week at the University of Chicago, the representative rejected calls from fellow progressives to work with Greene on that policy area.
“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and antisemite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis,” Ocasio-Cortez said Friday at an event hosted by the Institute of Politics. She added, “I don't think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists.”
University of Chicago remarks
The comments came after a student asked whether she stood by remarks she made in 2021 criticizing white supremacist sympathizers in the House GOP caucus. Ocasio-Cortez said she did stand by those comments and said she works with Republicans on specific bills only when their motives and the outcomes line up with progressive goals.
She said Greene did not meet that threshold on Gaza and Israeli accountability. That left the public line simple: Ocasio-Cortez would not treat Greene as a workable partner on the issue, even as some on the left have argued Democrats should be open to unusual alliances when the policy goal is shared.
Greene's May 9 response
Greene answered on X on May 9, saying, “AOC refused to vote for my amendment to strip funding for Israel.” She added, “She can run her mouth all she wants but votes are the only thing that matters, not a bunch of words and nasty name calling.”
That exchange set off criticism from some progressive commentators who said Ocasio-Cortez was siding too closely with the political mainstream. Ryan Grim wrote that Greene “sacrificed her political career to stand against genocide, against Trump, and against the Epstein Class.”
Cenk Uygur was sharper. “This is just terrible,” he wrote, adding, “She sounds just like the establishment.” He also said, “She's attacking an opponent of Israel as an antisemite,” called the stance “deeply counterproductive. And selfish.”
Progressive split on Greene
Glenn Greenwald also criticized Ocasio-Cortez, writing that she “emphatically condemns policies only when Trump and the GOP do them and gets muted and deferential when Democrats do.” He said Greene had shown “a willingness to work across party lines toward outcomes she believes are just.”
The dispute leaves a clear dividing line inside the anti-war and Gaza-policy debate: Ocasio-Cortez is drawing a boundary around Greene, while her critics want to judge the Republican by her vote on Israel policy alone. For readers tracking the fight inside the left, the immediate question is whether the movement treats ideological purity or tactical voting as the higher standard.
Ocasio-Cortez did not back away from the test she set in Chicago. She said she will work with Republicans when their motives align with hers, but not with Greene on Gaza and Israeli accountability.
