(USA Features) Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday he believes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is avoiding talk of supporting Israel in its current battle against Hamas because he is fearful of a primary challenge by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
During a GOP press conference on the conflict in Israel and Gaza, Cruz, R-Texas, challenged Senate Democrats to stand up to their left-wing House counterparts who were acting as “press agents” for Hamas and the Palestinians.
He singled out Schumer in particular, accusing him of avoiding taking a stand on the Mideast crisis for fear of antagonizing the party’s extreme left, including Ocasio-Cortez.
Cruz spoke the same day that President Joe Biden appeared to side with Palestinians and Iran-backed Hamas when he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire,” according to a White House readout.
The Texas Republican also ripped Hamas and the Palestinians for launching rockets at Israeli civilian centers while “locating military assets where innocent Palestinian civilians are likely to be the inadvertent targets of any act to strike back against the terrorists.”
“They use human shields, and what do the Democrats do? The Democrats act as their press agents,” he said. “It is Hamas that is killing these human shields – and the Democrats and the press are happily parroting that propaganda language.”
He went on to note that several years ago he led a resolution in the Senate against the use of civilians as human shields that received wide bipartisan support.
“But right now the Democratic Party is governed and led by the extreme left, by the ‘Squad’ – by AOC [Ocasio-Cortez], and [Rashida] Tlaib and [Ilhan] Omar, whose statements might as well be issued on behalf of Hamas,” said Cruz.
“They are accusing Israel of engaging in terrorism,” he added. “Defending your citizens from violent terrorist attacks is the right of Israel.”
Democrats, he continued, “have an opportunity to decide right now where do they stand.”
Cruz said shortly before the GOP conference that a reporter told him Schumer said he isn’t interested in answering any questions about Israel.
“Well I bet he doesn’t,” Cruz continued. “I bet he doesn’t because he’s so scared of AOC ‘primarying’ him from the left that he doesn’t want to say anything to anger the anti-Israel extreme left of the Democratic Party.”