Ocasio-Cortez slams fellow Democrat’s criticism of Sanders over Israel-Hamas war  

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday took a swipe at Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) for questioning Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) stance on antisemitism, calling the Florida Democrat’s remarks “shameful.”

“Sen. Sanders’ family was killed in the Holocaust. He dedicates his every moment to realizing tikkun olam. His commitment to protecting innocents in Gaza stems FROM his Jewish values,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday in a post on the social platform X. “He and many other Jewish leaders deserve better than to be treated this way. This is shameful.”

Ocasio-Cortez was responding to Moskowitz’s comments about Sanders, who released a statement Tuesday on his efforts to halt U.S. military aid to Israel’s wartime campaign.

“I am very disappointed, but not surprised, that my amendment to end offensive military aid to Netanyahu’s war machine – which has killed and wounded over 100,000 Palestinians, two thirds of whom are women and children – will not be considered,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders, the son of Jewish immigrants who emigrated from Poland in the 1920s to escape rising antisemitism, attempted to add an amendment to a massive foreign aid package taken up by the Senate on Tuesday that included $26 billion for Israel and global humanitarian aid, including for Gaza.

The bill passed in the upper chamber in a 79-18 vote Tuesday and was signed by President Biden on Wednesday. Sanders, along with Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), voted against the bill.

Moskowitz, who is also Jewish, reposted Sanders’s statement and wrote, “Bernie, now do AntiSemitism. Why so quiet?”

Moskowitz clapped back at Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism, pointing to his family’s deaths in the Holocaust. 

“My family was also killed in the Holocaust. In Germany and in Poland. My grandmother was in the kinder-transport,” he said. “They also instilled values in me. It’s why I voted for aid to Israel and for aid to Gaza. We see each other at work, we are both better than doing this here.”

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been one of the most vocal critics of continued U.S. aid to Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, given the climbing civilian death toll in Gaza.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Antisemitism has been on the rise in the U.S. and other Western nations since the Oct. 7 attacks, during which 1,200 were killed and about 250 others were kidnapped.

The U.S. saw more than 8,800 antisemitic incidents in 2023, according to the annual survey by the Anti-Defamation League, marking an all-time record. Moskowitz is one of several lawmakers who has expressed concerns about the uptick.

The Hill reached out to Moskowitz’s and Sanders’s offices for further comment.

Updated at 8:39 pm EST.