Ocasio-Cortez Attacks Israel, Pleads Ignorance

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacks Israel, calls them the occupiers of Palestine.

When pressed on what she meant she struggled to give an answer and then admitted she does not know what she is talking about. pic.twitter.com/e3Uq1eupD3

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 16, 2018

In her own words, Ocasio-Cortez describes the “occupation of Palestine” as: “Oh, um… [long pause] I think it, what I meant is, the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas… where, um, Palestinians are experiencing, uh, difficulty in accessing to, um, their housing and homes.” She added, “I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.”

Not ready for prime-time player, is what she is.

You don’t know whether to laugh at Ocasio-Cortez for embarrassing herself so badly, or to cry for the Democratic primary voters of New York District 14 for saddling themselves with this pretentious know-nothing. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Or both.

This clip of Ocasio-Cortez is revealing in two ways. The obvious, even superficial reveal is either “See what she really thinks of Israel” or “Look at how ignorant she is.” And I suspect both are true.

But put the two together you get the Big Reveal.

It isn’t just that Ocasio-Cortez hates Israel, or that she’s dangerously uninformed — it’s that she’s dangerously uninformed about an important issue. Reflexively so.

All Ocasio-Cortez really seems to know is that the Progressive Left sides with the Palestinians — and so she does, too. I suspect that’s as deep as her commitment to “Democratic” Socialism goes. All the Smart Pretty People believe in Nice Things like high-paying jobs for low-skilled work, Medicare For All, and the Palestinian Authority. And she’s one of the Smart Pretty People, so she buys into all that stuff without the prerequisite of, you know, actual knowledge about any of that stuff.

Ocasio-Cortez has a bachelor’s in economics and international relations from Boston University, yet was working as a bartender seven years after graduating — how much did she really learn, and did Boston teach her anything of value? These are fair questions to ask of a graduate in economics and international relations who peddles starry-eyed (and discredited) economic theory, and who admits to such ignorance about one of our thorniest foreign affairs issues.

And while it might be unfair to millions of sharp millennials, Ocasio-Cortez fits perfectly the generational stereotype of being pretentious and smugly certain about issues of which she’s comically ignorant.

I fear she’ll go far.