Congressman Ritchie Torres has been a steady pro-Israel voice on the center-left of the Democratic Party. The Squadroons hate him. Like Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.), he never wavers in his support for the embattled Jewish state. Recently he led a delegation of officials and clergy from Riverdale, the district he represents that is mainly in the Bronx, to Israel, as a way, he said, to remind Israelis that they are “not alone.” He wanted to see for himself the kibbutzim where the atrocities took place, and the field where so many participants in the Nova dance party were murdered. He wanted to assure his Israeli hosts that all these stories of Americans now changing their mind about Israel are not to be believed. He says that support for Israel, both among the American people, and among those in Washington who run the country, remains strong. Some may find his belief that Joe Biden’s attitude toward Israel has not changed much too sanguine, but I’d like think that he’s right.
More on Ritchie Torres and his visit to Israel can be found here: “Ritchie Torres to ‘Post’: Israel is not alone – exclusive,” by Eve Young, Jerusalem Post, April
While Rep. Ritchie Torres thinks that the US’s recent abstention in the UN Security Council which led to the passage of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, was wrong, he also wants Israel to know that “ the Israel-US relationship remains fundamentally intact.”
“What we are witnessing is not a change in American policy, but a clash of personalities,” the New York Democratic congressman explained to The Jerusalem Post, adding that this “is natural in every relationship.” The crisis between the US and Israel is “more perception than reality,” according to Torres.
The “personalities” Torres is referring to are Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, who have known each other for years, and once were friends, but during the last few months have recently had contentious exchanges over an American abstention at the UN Security Council, and on Israel’s refusal to call off its planned attack on Hamas in Rafah, and on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. They also disagree on the “day after” in Gaza, where the Bidenites, maddeningly, are counting on the Palestinian Authority – that has yet to condemn Hamas — to take over in the Strip, and Netanyahu is just as firmly responding “nothing doing.”
Torres thought that the US abstention was a mistake because it did not tie the demands for a ceasefire to the release of the hostages. “The de-linking of those two demands gives enhanced leverage to Hamas in the war and the hostage negotiations. I thought it was a colossal misjudgment on the part of the US,” he explained….
“Hamas is intent on murdering every Jew in Israel until the Jewish state itself is annihilated. No country should be expected to coexist with a genocidal terror organization like Hamas. Israel has no choice but to remove Hamas from power,” he said.
The Israel-Hamas war is not as simple as a conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to Torres, who said it is a fight between right and wrong, and on a much larger level, “about the future of liberal democracy.”
For Ritchie Torres, the war of survival Israel is fighting with Hamas is “a fight between right and wrong,” or as others have put it at Jihad Watch, “between civilization and savagery.” It is both of those things. The swelling theme deserves its musical accompaniment here.
It’s good that there are still Congressmen like Ritchie Torres, whose presence in the Democratic Party means that not all hope is lost on that side of the chamber. And besides, think of the anguish he causes Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Jameel Bowman, every time he gets up to speak up, so eloquently, as a “progressive,” in support of the state of Israel. The “weeping and gnashing of teeth” among the Squadroons must be a fine thing to observe.
Bull Herman says
Congressperson Torres is indeed a Blessed light chasing evil ghosts from their hateful tunnel.
May the Squad whither in daylight as rotten weeds deserve.
James Lincoln says
Anyone who “triggers” the “squad” must be a good person.
40 rounds says
Keep in mind a broken clock Is right twice a day
James Lincoln says
Point taken, 40 rounds.
RegT says
I imagine he triggers Hakeem Jeffries as well. Good for Torres, who might be more of a true old-style liberal than a progressive, based on this.
tgusa says
Everything constructed throughout the 20th century (and before) these so-called progressives are blowing up, melting down, burning and tearing down. In case he hasn’t realized, regression is not progressive. Their minds are stuck in the 19th century (OK, I’m being nice) but they lack the intellect creativity and actual forward thinking that makes sense that the 19th/20th century Americans possessed.
Scotsman48 says
Do the ceasefire morons on the streets today know that there was a ceasefire before Hamas broke it on Oct 7th?.
Gospel Day says
Thank you, Hugh Fitzgerald, for the link to Songs and Everlasting Joy’s rendition of “Once to Every Man and Nation” which is so very, very timely. Perhaps if Christians used these great hymns of the faith in worship, instead of the banal, bedroomy pap so common now, we would have some faith-sustaining meat in our corporate prayers, and a fervent will to petition God for a just and noble government that would stand with Israel, in money, arms, armed forces, anything and in any way necessary, to crush, to annihilate, once and for all, the foul, satanic evil that is Islam in all its Hamas-and-related forms. While the Church remains spineless, willfully ignorant and/or complicit with Islam, there is no hope. How angry our God must be. In prayer I think of Stephen being stoned to death for his stance on the truth—how the windows of heaven were opened to him and he saw the Lord Jesus standing—not sitting but standing!—ready to receive this brave martyr home. Yes, indeed, as Clinton Russell wrote, “Once to every man and nation / Comes the moment to decide, / In the strife of truth with falsehood, / For the good or evil side….” Let’s hope it’s not too late for us.
Interesting to hear this wonderful hymn set to the magnificent Welsh tune Ebenezer, most famous early on as the tune for “O the deep deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free…” What a different world it would be if we really believed that and shared it with those chained in blindness to Islam.
Barbara says
“Hamas is intent on murdering every Jew in Israel until the Jewish state itself is annihilated.
Then Hamas will murder every Jew in every country.
Considering how many Muslim terrorists are in the US, our Jews will be murdered.