Progressive \u201cSquad\u201d member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was recently hit with a significant fact-check from NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo following her comments in the aftermath of the Israeli pager attack against Hezbollah. Calling out AOC\u2019s critical remarks toward Israel, Cuomo declared that the liberal congresswoman was \u201cdead wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking about the attack carried out by Israeli counterintelligence officials, which saw thousands of pager devices detonate in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists believed to be supporting Hamas, AOC claimed the attack was a \u201cwar crime\u201d that justified international prosecution. Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet, \u201cThis attack clearly and unequivocally violates international humanitarian law and undermines US efforts to prevent wider conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing AOC\u2019s comments, Cuomo said, \u201cShe started by accusing Israel of a war crime for what they did to members of Hezbollah in Beirut, and then, asking for an investigation, accused them of a war crime, asked for an investigation.\u201d He added, \u201cThen she decided to get truthy and show her claim that the exploding pagers were \u2018clearly\u2019 in violation of U.S. policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing the tweet, the NewsNation anchor continued, \u201c\u2018This attack clearly unequivocally violates international humanitarian law, undermines U.S. efforts to prevent a wider conflict.\u2019 And then she said it violates U.S. policy. Clearly. Israel is not one of the United States, so they don\u2019t follow our laws or rules. Second, if the representative was suggesting by that comparison that the United States should therefore not support Israel, good luck with that. And then, here\u2019s what really bothers me about this salvo: She\u2019s dead wrong. This is why you don\u2019t accuse and then go in search of a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuomo further pointed out that AOC failed to fully cite the Department of Defense\u2019s guidelines, continuing, \u201cHere\u2019s the part that she left out, oddly, the next section after the one she cited, \u2018The use of mines, booby traps, other devices is subject to the same rules and principles that govern the use of other weapons to conduct attacks,\u2019\u201d Cuomo stated. \u201cThe rules include a prohibition against indiscriminate use of mines, booby traps and other devices. Indiscriminate. What does that mean? It means that all feasible precautions shall be taken to prevent civilians from the effects of mines, booby traps, and other devices, taking into account all circumstances ruling at the time, including humanitarian and military considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The host further delved into the Department of Defense manual which discusses the specifics of what is permissible when combating enemies. Cuomo also pointed out that AOC does not have a sufficient legal background to interpret the nuances of international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war manual even specifies an example of when booby traps are not prohibited. It would not be prohibited to improvise a booby trap, for example, to retard an enemy advance. What does that mean? Could mean a lot of things. One of them certainly is a group of bloodthirsty terrorists coming from you. So, did she not read that part because she\u2019s not a lawyer or not thorough, or did intentionally not want to be fair? One is misfeasance, not doing your job well. The other is malfeasance, doing it badly on purpose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Progressive \u201cSquad\u201d member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was recently hit with a significant fact-check from NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo following her comments in the aftermath of the Israeli pager attack against Hezbollah. Calling out AOC\u2019s critical remarks toward Israel, Cuomo declared that the liberal congresswoman was \u201cdead wrong.\u201d Speaking about the attack carried out by Israeli […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n