https://nypost.com/2023/12/25/news/aoc-slammed-over-christmas-message-about-israel-hamas-war-jew-hate/
AOC slammed over Christmas message about Israel-Hamas war: ‘Jew hate’
By Social Links forMelissa Koenig
Published Dec. 25, 2023
Updated Dec. 25, 2023, 10:57 a.m. ET
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likens Palestinians to Jesus while describing Israel as a violent occupying force in an online Christmas post, prompting critics to slam what they call her blatant “Jew hate.”
In her Instagram story on Christmas Eve, the lefty New York Democrat shared a photo of a child in rubble in the Gaza Strip and said she is praying “for the peace and protection of the innocent in Gaza and the occupied territories.
“In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” she wrote.
“He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power. Mary and Joseph, displaced by violence and forced to flee, became refugees in Egypt with a newborn waiting to one day return home.
“Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians, so much so that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled this year’s Christmas Eve celebrations out of both [fear for their] safety and respect,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
“And yet, also today, holy children are still being born in a place of unspeakable violence — for every child born, of any identity and from any place, is sacred. Especially the children of Gaza,” AOC said.
“The entire story of Christmas and Christ himself is about standing with the poor and powerless, the marginalized and maligned, the refugees and immigrants, the outcast and misunderstood without exception,” she wrote.
“This high Christian holiday is about honoring the precious sanctity of a family that, if the story were to unfold today, would be Jewish Palestinians,” the Democrat said.
“Merry Christmas. May there be peace on Earth, amen.”
Jacob Kornbluh, a senior political reporter at The Forward, shared a screengrab of the post on X.
“AOC describes Israel as a ‘violent, right wing occupying force’ in [a] Christmas post,” he wrote. “No mention of Hamas terror, [or] the victims of [the] Oct. 7 attack.”
Another user noted that AOC neglected to mention the Israelis that are still being held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip and the women who were raped during the terrorists’ brutal attack, saying her “Jew hate is really showing here.”
A third X user claimed that “Jewish Palestinians are not a thing. They were Jews of Judea then.
“She’s spouting make believe,” the user from New Jersey wrote.
Pro-Israel activist Andrea Karshan simply replied: “I wish people would just enjoy Christmas and stop getting so social justice political about it.
“I am so glad that when I was Christian I had a blast on Christmas and didn’t waste my time engaging in this nonsense. It’s so silly,” Karshan wrote.
AOC’s message came just hours before Pope Francis blasted the weapons industry and its “instruments of death” that fuel wars as he made a Christmas Day appeal for peace in the world and in particular between Israel and the Palestinians.
Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to the throngs of people below, Francis said he grieved over the “abominable attack” of Hamas against southern Israel Oct. 7 and called for the release of hostages.
But he also begged for an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the “appalling harvest of innocent civilians” as he called for humanitarian aid to reach those in need.