On Thursday, December 14, Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) basked in a new bill of the creation of a new Special Envoy for the Abraham Accords, which he introduced and passed through the House of Representatives with fellow New York Congressman Mike Lawyer (District 17). The bill has since passed through Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024. “The Abraham Accords are an affirmation that peace is possible, which must be protected and strengthened,” wrote Torres in a statement.
“With the passage of this bill in the House, we are bending the long arc of the Middle East in its proper direction – toward peace and prosperity for all. The timing of this bill’s passage could not be more important at this moment, in light of the war between Israel and Hamas. It is more important than ever that we fight to protect Israel’s global standing and partnerships.” Once the bill is signed by President Joe Biden, the legislation will require the State Department to establish an ambassador-level Special Envoy for the Abraham Accords, the Negev Forum, and Related Integration and Normalization For and Agreements at the State Department. “The Special Envoy would be responsible for coordinating on behalf of the US government with regional ambassadors, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders to strengthen and expand the Accords.”
Rep. Torres, who succeeded Jose E. Serrano, and assumed office in January 2021, is an Afro-Latino man who was raised Catholic. He also has deemed himself as “the embodiment of a pro-Israel Progressive.” Since taking office, he has proven this characterization in words and in deeds. Leading up to the October 7 Hamas terror attack, Rep. Torres expressed “revulsion” to “extremism” within his own wing of the Democratic Party, which called for a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that has routinely de-legitimized Israel. This very same group called for aid to Israel to be conditional, even after the worst terror attack in the country’s history.
“US aid to Israel is and should be unconditional, and never more so than in this moment of critical need,” Rep. Torres declared on October 8. “Congress must act decisively to provide Israel [with] whatever it needs to defend itself in the face of unprecedented terrorism. Shame on anyone who glorifies ‘resistance’; this was the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. It is reprehensible and repulsive.” Rep. Torres called his first visit to Israel in 2015, led by the Jewish Community Relations Council, a “life-changing experience.”
In late October, Politico ran a profile piece of the Puerto Rican-born congressman with the headline, “Israel’s loudest House supporter.” In his interview, Torres describes his feelings for Israel as “Love at first sight. It was one of the most formative and transformative experiences of my life. I was deeply affected by my experiences at Yad Vashem, Masada, and Sderot. My pro-Israel advocacy is based on a decade of engaging deeply with the subject of Israel.” Also in his interview, he identified himself as a “fighter from the Bronx [who] will fight what I believe in. This is not about geopolitics [when speaking of why he defends Israel’s right to self-defense and resisting the calls for a ceasefire with a terrorist organization such as Hamas]. This is not about the conflict. This is about human decency. It’s indecent to blame the victims of terrorism rather than the terrorists themselves.”
As Israel’s war with Hamas enters its 80th day this week, blowback from the far-Left has turned downright anti-Semitic. On December 20, the Anti-Defamation League published a select list of anti-Semitic actors, who have threatened and targeted Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions worldwide. The statistics are shocking: from Jewish cemeteries being vandalized in Europe and South America to offices in Europe being spray-painted with anti-Zionist epithets and Nazi slurs.
During Chanukah, for instance, a menorah was vandalized in Chile with the word “murderers,” while in one neighborhood in Vienna, Austria, eggs were thrown at the only apartment door with a mezuzah on it. The apartment belonged to a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor. Grzegorz Braun, a far-Right member of Poland’s Confederation party, also violently took a fire extinguisher to extinguish a Chanukah menorah’s lights in the country’s Parliament just after a celebration of the holiday commenced there.
On Thursday, December 21, Rep. Torres took part in an American Jewish Committee event at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan with Rep. Lawler and Dr. Mijal Bitton to discuss the aforementioned bill that he co-introduced and passed, in assigning a special envoy for the Abraham Accords. The event was marred by the interruption by a bunch of anti-Israel protesters, which screamed cruel epithets about Israel, and charged Torres as an abettor to Israel’s actions in Gaza. The disturbance lasted for over eight minutes.
“I appeared at the 92nd Street Y to speak about Israeli-Arab peace through the Abraham Accords, only to be interrupted by raving lunatics,” Torres later wrote on Twitter/X. “No amount of Astroturf anti-Israel agitation is going to bully me into supporting a ceasefire that perpetuates the genocidal terrorism of Hamas. I refuse to be intimidated by a fanatical fringe that represents no one and nothing but itself.”
Just a day after the ugly incident, Torres was seen at SAR Academy, a K-8 Modern Orthodox day school in the Bronx, where he greeted around 1,000 young Jewish students and faculty, as reported by the New York Jewish Week. “I know, as a congressman, I’m not supposed to have favorites – but SAR is one of my favorites because it is a special and magical place,” he said. “It’s moments like these that we’re reminded of what matters most... [It] is family and friendship and faith. All of you are fighting for the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, and the right of Israel to defend itself against an existential threat. It’s an honor to be a righteous ally in that cause.”
Even the day after Christmas Day, Rep. Torres tweeted, “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.”
In addition to this act outside Rep. Torres’ office on December 25, chants of “Christmas is canceled here” were heard throughout Grand Central. Also, multiple arrests were made with at least one officer hurt after a pro-Palestinian rally also on December 25. Protests went on for hours, according to the NYPD, which began along Fifth Avenue near the Rockefeller Christmas tree before heading downtown. There were six arrests, and video footage also showed tense moments of those in custody while behaving belligerently with police.
Late on Tuesday, January 2, anti-Israel activists projected onto Yankee Stadium the words “Zionism is Racism” brightly on its building. The congressman immediately responded on Twitter, in which he wrote, “The notion of Zionism as racism is and has always been a lie. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, who, against improbable odds, have overcome millennia of anti-Semitism in the form of exile, expulsions, crusades, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. To single out Jewish self-determination as racist is itself racist.”
By Jared Feldschreiber
