Rep. Elect Ritchie Torres, a Progressive Democrat, Rips AOC’s Israel Hating ‘Squad’
Ritchie Torres may be a progressive Democrat, but he won’t be signing up with AOC and her band of mental midget misfits which Nancy Pelosi nicknamed the ‘Squad’.
Ritchie Torres, is going to Washington next month to represent the South Bronx in Congress.
But despite his being a Bernie Sanders loving Progressive Democrat, he says you won’t see him paling around with Democratic Socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib anytime soon.
Torres,32, cited his strong support for Israel as a primary distinction between ‘the Squad’ and true progressives like himself.
“I came to observe that there are activists who have a visceral hatred for Israel as though it were the root of all evil.
The act of singling out Israel as BDS [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] has done is the definition of discrimination.”
Torres, who has served on the New York City Council since 2013, says he was moved by trips to Israel in 2015 and 2017.
“I remember meeting a family in Sderot. And I had no concept of what it was like to live in a city that lives under the fear of rocket fire.
“I’m going to make the case that the progressive position is a two-state solution and promoting dignity for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
While support for Israel was once broadly bipartisan, in recent years many on the left have taken a more confrontational approach.
A number of Congress’ most vocal progressives, like Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, have come out in support of BDS.
Both have also been repeatedly accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also denounced Israel’s “occupation” of Palestine and voted against a House resolution to reaffirm support for the two-state solution.
In New York, AOC’s political backer, the increasingly ascendant Democratic Socialists of America, has also tangled with Torres.
After New York’s DSA co-chair Sumathy Kumar refused to say whether Israel had a right to exist, Torres pounced.
“The leadership of the DSA declines to affirm that the state of Israel should exist. ‘Insane’ is the word that comes to mind,”
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