Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) who represents the South Bronx in Washington, on Monday tweeted:
“Hamas rejects the latest ceasefire. The hyperbolic and hysterical demonization of Israel—from fair-weather friends—makes Hamas feel emboldened to continue rejecting ceasefires and continue holding the hostages captive. Sinwar feels like he is winning.”
Representing Congressional District 15 that borders Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s District 14, Torres, who is Afro-Latino is a loyal friend of US Jews and Israel. But unlike AOC, Torres has called himself “the embodiment of a pro-Israel progressive,” and after winning the election in 2020, announced that he would not join the Squad, and would not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. He has described his “revulsion” to the BDS movement’s “extremism” which he believes questions the very legitimacy and existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
And in November 2023, Torres rejected calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, and called the claims that Israel is committing genocide there a “blood libel.”
In January, Torres sent a scathing letter to Karen Dye, the President of the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, after the charity directed “millions” to The People’s Forum, an anti-Israel proxy of the Chinese Communist Party.
Torres wrote that Hamas “espouses the kind of genocidal ideology that The People’s Forum has been caught promoting as ‘the final blow,’ which is strikingly similar to Nazi rhetoric about a ‘final solution.’”
Torres also warned about “anti-Israel propaganda” in the New York City public school system, and wrote Schools Chancellor David Banks: “The DOE should subject to heightened scrutiny educational content from external entities like the Qatar International Foundation, whose program promoted the image of the Middle East where Israel was nowhere to be found.”
On Christmas day, the Congressman’s district office was vandalized with blood-red paint covering a doll representing Jesus. He tweeted in response: On Christmas Day, anti-Israel extremists vandalized my Bronx Office with red paint, symbolizing blood. Covered in “blood” is a doll meant to symbolize Jesus, whom the vandals describe as a “Palestinian child messiah.” The escalation in intimidation and incitement against Members of Congress feels like it is heading in a dangerous direction. I, for one, will not be intimidated.
On Christmas Day, anti-Israel extremists vandalized my Bronx Office with red paint, symbolizing blood.
Covered in “blood” is a doll meant to symbolize Jesus, whom the vandals describe as a “Palestinian child messiah.”
The escalation in intimidation and incitement against… pic.twitter.com/Sj69AMQ1Xt
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) December 26, 2023
