Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks about Israel’s military actions against terrorist factions in the Gaza Strip provoked swift backlash from experts on military and Middle Eastern affairs. Her statements were critiqued as a severe indictment of Israel’s policies and the U.S.’s role in supporting them.

During her address, the congresswoman emphasized the importance of the United States adhering to its own legislative standards, specifically referencing the Leahy laws. “For me, this issue goes beyond a presidential election,” she stated. “I believe the United States must uphold its laws, especially the Leahy laws. The concept of unconditional support, regardless of actions taken, is illogical to me. I contend that this has, in fact, enabled genocide in Gaza, resulting in the avoidable loss of thousands of women and children’s lives.”

(Liesa Johannssen/Reuters)

Ocasio-Cortez further elaborated, “I advocate for the implementation of our laws as outlined in the Leahy laws, which mandate that aid must be conditioned upon the presence of gross human rights violations. This approach is necessary and justified.”

She continued, “And, so I believe that enforcement of our own laws through the Leahy laws, which requires conditioning aid in any circumstance, when you see gross human rights violations, is appropriate.”

The Leahy Laws prohibit the Department of Defense and the State Department from funding “foreign security force units when there is credible information that the unit has committed a ‘gross violation of human rights.” Former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., introduced the bill in 1997.

Tom Gross, an expert on international affairs, told Fox News digital that “AOC has flown all the way to Munich — infamous as the city in which Hitler staged his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch that marked the beginning of the road to the Holocaust — in order to smear the Jewish people further with a phony genocide allegation.”

Gross added, “Such preposterous allegations of ‘genocide’ form the bedrock of modern antisemitic incitement against Jews in the U.S. and globally. This shocking ignorance and insensitivity by Ocasio-Cortez should rule her out of any potential presidential bid or other high office.”

Memorials at the site of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, Israel, on Monday, May 27, 2024.  (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Military experts and genocide researchers have debunked the allegation that Israel carried out a genocide against Palestinians during its self-defense war against the Hamas terrorist organization that started after Hamas terrorists attacked communities in parts of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that saw over 1200 Israeli and foreign nationals killed and 251 brutally kidnapped and taken into Gaza by Hamas and other terrorists.

Hamas terrorists wave to Gazans during Sunday’s release of three Israeli hostages. (TPS-IL)

Danny Orbach, a military historian from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-author of “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7 2023, to June 1, 2025,” told Fox News Digital that Ocasio-Cortez accusation that Israel committed genocide is an “accusation that is incorrect both factually and legally. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide requires proof of a special intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part, and as a baseline condition, an active effort to maximize civilian destruction.

“The evidence shows the opposite: as demonstrated in our multi-author study Debunking the Genocide Allegations, Israel undertook unprecedented measures to mitigate civilian harm, including establishing humanitarian safe zones that independently verified data show were approximately six times safer than other areas of Gaza.”

An Israeli soldier patrols near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel on Oct. 12, 2023, close to the place where 270 revelers were killed by terrorists during the Supernova music festival on Oct 7.  (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

Orbach added, “Israel also issued detailed advance warnings before strikes and facilitated the entry of over two million tons of humanitarian aid, often at significant cost to its own military advantage, including the loss of surprise and the sustainment of an enemy during wartime.”

He concluded, “These measures were taken despite Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, its systematic use of human shields and hospitals for military purposes, and a tunnel network exceeding 1,000 kilometers — an operational challenge without historical precedent. Finally, no credible evidence demonstrates the kind of unambiguous, exclusive genocidal intent toward Palestinians that international law requires and that cannot be reasonably interpreted otherwise.”

The conservative commentator Derek Hunter posted on X. “Imagine going to Germany to complain about a fake genocide by Jews…in Munich, of all places. @AOC is about as smart as clogged toilet.”

In Dec. 2024, Germany joined the U.S. in rejecting the allegations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.