There are some policy suggestions that are so beyond reason that they leave knowledgeable people questioning how they could have been made in the first place.
The U.S.-Israel relationship, for instance, is built on a foundation of shared values. Human rights for all people, irrespective of race, religion or gender, are one of the most fundamental of those shared values. The accusation that Israel has been violating human rights, irrespective of whether in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, or in Israel proper, is as absurd as it is false. Only suggesting that America should condition aid to Israel is more misguided.
At the annual Munich Security Conference that took place in mid-February, many people were surprised to see Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). She quickly made it abundantly clear that she did not belong among the foreign-policy leaders and experts. On questions from the Middle East to Taiwan, she displayed her ignorance on the most basic issues.
At one point, Hagar Shezaf of the Israeli daily Haaretz asked the congresswoman if she thought that “the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should re-evaluate military aid to Israel.” In an answer devoid of all nuance, Ocasio-Cortez suggested upending decades of American policy of providing unconditional aid to Israel.
And why is that?
Buying into the false narrative of a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, she responded: “To me, this isn’t just about a presidential election.”
She continued, saying, “personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy Laws. I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense,” she added. “I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza, and I think that we have thousands of women and children dead … that was completely avoidable.”
The Leahy Laws are U.S. statutes that prohibit providing military assistance, training, equipment or other related support to units of foreign security forces when credible information exists that the unit has committed gross violations of human rights, such as torture, rape, extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances. Assistance can resume if the foreign government takes effective steps to bring those responsible to justice; the laws require vetting of recipient units to enforce this human-rights condition on U.S. security cooperation.
The United States has been supporting Israel’s defense since Democratic President John F. Kennedy sold Israel Hawk missiles in 1963. Since then, U.S. military aid to Israel has ballooned to tens of billions of dollars. Washington gives the Jewish state more than $4 billion a year, and during the two-year war with Hamas in Gaza, it supplied Jerusalem with more than $15 billion in weaponry. America has also partnered with Israel on joint defense and research projects, as well as coordinated on joint attacks against common enemies like Iran.
This military assistance is a reflection of the shared values between the two countries, as well as the confidence Americans have in Israel’s commitment to human rights and the appropriate use of weapons for defensive purposes.
Those, like Ocasio-Cortez, who accuse Israel of human-rights violations, remain in the minority of American views on Israel. They accept false narratives fabricated by enemies of the Jewish state and ignore U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessments regarding facts on the ground. They advocate conditioning military aid to Israel based on false claims rather than a factual assessment of the nation’s actions.
Imposing additional conditions is unnecessary and could undermine the established framework that applies to all recipients of U.S. aid. In addition, there is strong bipartisan support in Congress for providing aid without new restrictions, as conditioning it could politicize the relationship and lead to divisions within U.S. politics, potentially harming broader foreign-policy goals in the Middle East and beyond.
Equally important, Israel has a robust economy where U.S. aid represents only about 1% of its Gross Domestic Product, meaning conditions might not meaningfully influence its actions. Instead, it could push Israel toward greater self-reliance or even alternative global partnerships.
Calls to condition U.S. military aid to Israel based on false claims of genocide and human-rights violations are dangerously misguided. The U.S.-Israel alliance—grounded in intelligence-sharing and strategic mutual benefits—has been wisely supported for decades. Imposing additional conditions would undermine a vital partnership, ignore Israel’s exemplary record of cooperation and harm American interests without advancing any legitimate goal. It also feeds into the hateful and false accusations leveled at Israel from some of the worst corners of today’s world.
