Recently, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke out against her fellow “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ stance on a push for a Gaza ceasefire.  AOC recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention, where she gave her full endorsement of Harris’ presidential bid.

During her speech, the progressive congresswoman applauded the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration to bring about a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that has impacted Gaza.  “She is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd.  The Harris-Walz campaign clipped the soundbite from the speech and quickly circulated it across social media.

However, commentators have pointed out that Harris’ duties as the vice president, a mostly ceremonial job, do not include taking on foreign policy.  Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, claimed, “Frankly, it’s a somewhat puzzling claim, given that Vice President Harris’s responsibilities don’t include U.S. foreign policy.  Ultimately, the only thing we can judge by is the factual evidence. And the factual evidence is that almost a year now into the war, or 10 months into the war, there has been no ceasefire.”

However, the Democratic Party has been largely divided on the issue of Palestine, which was highlighted by AOC’s speech.  Last Wednesday, Rep. Omar sounded off on her “colleagues” and the Democratic Party for not appropriately addressing the Middle-Eastern conflict.  “It’s been unconscionable for me the last 10 months to witness my colleagues in this administration refusing to recognize the genocidal war that is taking place in Gaza,” Omar said.

“For people who struggle letting go of the notion of AOC as this upstart insurgent against the establishment, I think it is uncomfortable to reckon with her absorption into the establishment because it reinforces despair,” Husain said. “It reinforces this disillusionment, that we can’t do anything at all to change things in America. But that is not true. We can always change things. We can always build an alternative.”

Furthermore, the far-left Democratic Socialists of America revoked its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez over her stance on Gaza, where she was one of the first members of Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire.  However, the organization expected AOC to  “demonstrate a higher level of commitment to Palestinian liberation.”

The group further called out AOC for allegedly refusing to label the conflict a genocide.  “Her inability to say it’s a genocide for months, her inability to take the oppositional role that Rashida Tlaib is taking in this moment, is a betrayal,” according to Ahmed Husain, a member of DSA’s national political committee.

Husain continued, “For people who struggle letting go of the notion of AOC as this upstart insurgent against the establishment, I think it is uncomfortable to reckon with her absorption into the establishment because it reinforces despair.  It reinforces this disillusionment, that we can’t do anything at all to change things in America. But that is not true. We can always change things. We can always build an alternative.”

Watch Rep. Omar’s comments below: