“If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes.”

Those were the words of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in March, speaking about Israel’s assault on Gaza on the House floor.

“It looks,” she continued, “like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents. It looks like thousands of children eating grass as their bodies consume themselves, while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away. It looks like good and decent people who do nothing. Or do too little too late.”

“The time is now,” Ocasio-Cortez argued, “to force compliance with US law and the standards of humanity” and “to suspend the transfer of US weapons to the Israeli government. Honoring our alliances does not mean facilitating mass killing.”

For the past ten months, while Israel has pummeled, starved, and demolished every corner of Gaza, AOC and other members of the Squad have shown integrity, exposing Israeli atrocities in the face of massive pressures to fall in line behind Israel on Capitol Hill. Left Democrats in office helped to reflect and boost a mass movement that has been growing on the streets and on college campuses to stop the genocide. Members of the Squad visited college encampments and gave their support at a time when the conservative right and the Democratic Party leadership alike were screaming bloody murder about student protesters, and anyone showing even meek support risked witch hunts and more. To prove the point, the Squad’s already slim ranks thinned further when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent millions of dollars to oust representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush from their seats in Democratic primaries this summer.

But when AOC took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention to cheers of “AOC! AOC!”, all that seemed to fall away. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez repeated the false narrative that Vice President Kamala Harris is “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza.”

Watching the speech at home, like many others, I felt blindsided and deeply disappointed. I have always defended AOC from attacks on Palestine, both because I don’t believe politicians have to be perfect to be allies, and because the work that she and others in the Squad have done to oppose the genocide is desperately needed. So long as the power to stop the war lies largely in Washington, DC, we need every ally we can get. But as I watched her abdicate that position on national television, my heart sank.

It’s one thing to feel gaslighted by the Biden-Harris administration as they make these claims. We all know that if you want a cease-fire, you have to stop being the one that literally provides the fire, as Uncommitted cofounder Layla Elabed has put it. It’s another thing to hear the mythology repeated from an ally of the movement, at just the moment when Uncommitted delegates were actively organizing at the convention to pressure Vice President Harris to stop arms shipments to Israel.

On the DNC stage, AOC’s message seemed to imply: Why are Uncommitted delegates even here? Harris is doing the best that she can!

Everyone understands that being in a position like AOC’s requires compromises with the Democratic Party leadership. But she went far further in those compromises than was justifiable — and undermined the movement opposed to Israeli genocide in the process.

Rep. Ilhan Omar would later say at an Uncommitted press conference, “Working tirelessly for a cease-fire is really not a thing and [members of the administration] should be ashamed of themselves for saying such things. Because we supply these weapons. So if you really wanted a cease-fire, you just stop sending the weapons.” Human-rights organizations, humanitarian organizations, and Palestinian groups have been saying that the United States must cut off arms shipments to save lives and reach a lasting cease-fire.

But as Rep. Rashida Tlaib pointed out, “the Israeli military announced that the Biden administration has sent over six hundred weapons shipments by air and sea to Israel since October. That’s over 50,000 tons of weapons, with shipments about every twelve hours ― all used to commit well-documented war crimes and to murder Palestinian children and civilians.” The Biden administration recently approved another $20 billion in weapons to Israel.

Recent polls show that a majority of Americans oppose sending more weapons to Israel, including 77 percent of Democrats. A third of undecided voters in key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona are more likely to vote for Democrats if they support an immediate and permanent cease-fire and an arms embargo against Israel.

A House floor speech and a speech at the Democratic National Convention can’t be the same speech. AOC was doubtless given a prime-time slot in recognition of her increased clout within the Democratic Party. In exchange, she could offer “unity” across the Democratic Party’s political spectrum.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Having someone like AOC rise in the Democratic Party ranks can help move economic, social justice, and internationalist causes forward, much as Bernie Sanders has done around economic policies during Joe Biden’s tenure.

AOC herself argued on social media that at a time when AIPAC spent more $100 million to go after members of Congress who stood up for Palestinian rights, “we need to grow and defend our ranks to do more.” That includes protecting her space within the Democratic Party. She’s right about the need to be strategic, and in US politics, this is a messy process.

“It’s easier to be pissed off on the internet than actually build community and power around a just cause,” AOC said. “It’s not enough to be right. We need to be right and WIN.”

Really interesting response here from @AOC who says progressives have "a moral obligation to be effective in addition to having a just stance." pic.twitter.com/9Xi4wxtvgT

— Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) August 29, 2024

But when it came to the convention speech, there are many things AOC could have said to build unity without excluding Palestinian human rights or undercutting the work of activists. She could have made a nod toward the humanity of Palestinians, pointed to the horrifying anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim policies and aims of Donald Trump, or called for upholding US law in providing aid to foreign militaries. Offstage, she could have publicly voiced explicit support for the Uncommitted movement’s demand for a Palestinian speaker at the convention, as the United Auto Workers did after president Shawn Fain’s speech.

As Daniel Denvir, who was at the DNC as an alternate Uncommitted delegate for Rhode Island, put it to me: “There was a tough needle to thread there.” A speech at the DNC would be highly vetted by Democratic leaders, and would only pass if it helped to unite the party against the threat of a Donald Trump victory. “But I don’t think she even tried to thread it.”

This is a critical moment to force some self-reflection within the party and shift the Harris campaign’s course. As an increasingly influential politician within the party, Ocasio-Cortez can use her position to amplify and validate the demands that Palestinian, human rights, and progressive groups are putting forward: If the United States is serious about reaching a cease-fire, it must stop sending Israel the bombs it is using to carry out this genocidal war. AOC has made these arguments before, and this is the time to push them forward.

To keep up the pressure on the Democratic Party, she could publicly point out the contradiction of claiming to push for a cease-fire while sending weapons. And she could argue that in order to maintain the unity of a progressive coalition, Harris needs to support an arms embargo — a shift in stance that is critical to ending the suffering in Gaza, and all the more necessary to demand as Harris explicitly refuses to do so, as she did in her CNN interview last night.

AOC could also sponsor a joint resolution of disapproval for the $20 billion the United States is sending to Israel, and point out that so long as weapons are being used to carry out war crimes, it is against US laws to provide aid to foreign militaries. Such a resolution, if passed within sixty days, could effectively block that $20 billion shipment. It would, of course, be unlikely to pass, but would provide an organizing and media tool and highlight the inconsistency of saying you are working towards a cease-fire while providing ammunition and support.

AOC’s DNC speech was disappointing. It let down the movement demanding an end to the slaughter in Gaza. But AOC has also been one of Palestine’s strongest allies in Congress, and it isn’t too late for her to make up for her DNC performance. This is both an urgent moral and electoral imperative. As AOC argued in March, the time is now.