#rep. Ritchie Torres

[eretzyisrael]

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) appeared to fire an implicit barb at colleagues Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Betty McCollum (D-MN) on Friday over tweets from the two legislators earlier in the week about the construction of the planned U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

“I support the [State Department] as it proceeds to build an embassy where it belongs, in a country’s capital. Israel should be no exception,” Torres said on Twitter. “The [siting] of an embassy in Jerusalem in no way forecloses the possibility of a two state solution, which remains the best path forward for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

Tlaib had tweeted earlier in the week that she was “outraged” that the State Department was moving forward on its plans to build the embassy “on land stolen from Palestinians,” adding that in “doing so, the U.S. is complicit in the illegal confiscation of Palestinian property.”

The Michigan congresswoman followed up the tweet by linking to a New York Times op-ed about the U.S.’s reported plans to build a new embassy in Jerusalem on the Allenby Barracks site — parts of which the op-ed’s author says had been in his family’s possession prior to Israel’s war for independence in 1948.

McCollum likewise tweeted about the op-ed last week, sharing a quote from it.

Torres noted on Friday that the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 required the U.S. to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem. The current embassy facility was previously used by the U.S. consulate that coordinated relations with the Palestinians.

In a floor speech earlier this month, Tlaib again accused Israel of apartheid, accusations that have previously elicited accusations of antisemitism from other House Democrats and Jewish leaders.

[barking]

THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN IS REQUESTING A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO NEX BENEDICT'S DEATH

(full official request by HRC president Kelley Robinson)

this request is also being backed by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), and Nex's death has been acknowledged by Kamala Harris on Twitter

I really, really hope that these increasingly public calls for justice in Nex Benedict's assault and death lead to more action... this tragedy has finally recieved coverage in publications like USA Today, CNN, NBC, and even The New York Times

keep talking about this, please!!

EDIT: PLEASE STOP USING "SAY THEIR NAME" WHEN TALKING ABOUT NEX BENEDICT.

#SayHerName was started back in 2014 SPECIFICALLY FOR VICTIMS OF ANTI-BLACK RACISM / HATE CRIMES / MURDER. using it for Nex, who is non-black, is appropriation and co-opting a movement.

keep demanding accountability for their death, but don't use "say their name" to do so.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, is the only Palestinian-American member of Congress. She was "censured" by the House on November 7th for speaking out against Israel's genocide of Palestine.

Here is a list of the 22 Democrats who voted to censure her:

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.)

Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.)

Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.)

Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.)

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine)

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.)

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.)

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio)

Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.)

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.)

Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.)

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.)

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.)

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.)

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.)

Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.)

Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.)

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.)

There were also 4 Republicans who voted against her censure:

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.)

John Duarte (R-Calif.)

Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)

Tom McClintock (R-Calif.)

If your Representative voted against the censure, please call to thank them! If your Representative voted for the censure, please call to say that you disagree, and that what they did does not represent what you want as their constituent.

Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

[beardedmrbean]

Centrist Democrats are slamming their far-left colleagues following Election Day, arguing that their emphasis on "identity politics" and other issues handed huge victories to the GOP.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., argued that President-elect Trump has "no greater friend than the far left." Like-minded Democrats say racial politics, anti-police rhetoric and gender hysteria are alienating millions of voters.

"There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world," Torres wrote on X. "The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling."

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville put it more bluntly in a Sunday interview with the New York Times, calling "defund the police" the "three stupidest words in the English language."

"We could never wash off the stench of it," he said.

Torres is one of several Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate who have called out his party's "nonsense." One centrist House Democrat complained to Axios on Monday that the "identity politics stuff is absolutely killing us."

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., argued on Sunday that Democrats are "out of touch with the crisis of meaning/purpose fueling MAGA."

"We don't listen enough; we tell people what's good for them. And when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base," Murphy wrote.

Not all Democrats are ready to make a change, however. When Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., broke with his party to condemn biological males playing in women's sports last week, he faced an avalanche of hate.

"Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face," Moulton said in a New York Times report. "I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that."

The statement resulted in calls for Moulton to resign, and at least one of his staffers quit in protest.

Massachusetts state Rep. Manny Cruz suggested Moulton's stance was "a betrayal" in a post on X.

"Congressman Moulton, your commitment then was protecting the LGBTQ community, standing up for their rights, and compassion. Now, on a political whim, our Congressman has betrayed the words he signed onto just last year by scapegoating transgender youth in sports for the failures of the national Democratic Party and leaders to win the presidential election. You said you 'would stand with Nagly and with all our community … against all forms of bigotry, discrimination, bullying, and harassment,'" Cruz wrote. 

Salem city Councilor Kyle Davis, another Democrat, called for Moulton to resign. 

"I’m not looking for an apology from [Moulton], I’m looking for a resignation," Davis wrote in a post on X.

Moulton refused to apologize and instead doubled down in a statement late last week.

"I will fight, as I always have, for the rights and safety of all citizens. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and we can even disagree on them. Yet there are many who, shouting from the extreme left corners of social media, believe I have failed the unspoken Democratic Party purity test," he said.

"We did not lose the 2024 election because of any trans person or issue. We lost, in part, because we shame and belittle too many opinions held by too many voters and that needs to stop. Let’s have these debates now, determine a new strategy for our party since our existing one failed, and then unite to oppose the Trump agenda wherever it imperils American values."

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By 

Carl Campanile and Aneeta Bhole

CUNY’s Baruch College tried to block a campus celebration of Rosh Hashanah over safety concerns — and only reversed course after it was put on blast for kowtowing to anti-Israel agitators instead of protecting its Jewish students.

Jewish students at the public college in Manhattan were told by school officials not to hold the Sept. 26 event celebrating the Jewish New Year because Baruch could not “guarantee their security,” Baruch College English professor and Hillel director Ilya Brayman told The Post.

“We were told by the administration that the campus can’t guarantee the safety of Jewish students because of other agitators who want to hurt, intimidate or harass them,” Brayman seethed.

4Anti-Israel protesters outside of Baruch College in Manhattan on June 5, 2024.

“It’s appalling. It’s insane.”

CUNY officials only “changed their mind” after New York Rep. Ritchie Torres joined Baruch trustees and Jewish students and faculty to push back.

In a scathing letter sent Tuesday to CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and Interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon, Rep. Torres blasted the “under-policing” of antisemitism on campus.

“Public safety should not be an excuse for denying religious liberty, which is a protected right under the First Amendment. Religious liberty should be a reason to guarantee public safety,” Torres wrote.

The congressman then urged the CUNY and city leaders to act with “urgency” to stamp out Jew hatred flourishing on Empire State campuses.

“What is it going to take to get New York and CUNY to treat campus antisemitism with the urgency it demands? Must there be a violent assault? Or the loss of a student’s life?,” Torres asked.

“Imagine, for a moment, if the KKK were harassing black students on or near CUNY’s campus. Or if the congregants of the Westboro Baptist Church were harassing LGBTQ students. Or if white nationalists, acting on the Great Replacement Theory, were harassing immigrants?,” he continued.

“Does anyone think the response from the NY political and academic establishment would be anything other than overwhelming outrage?”

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Ron Kapeas

Published: Jan 8, 2024

JTA — In a speech marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Rep. Ritchie Torres likened protesters who have celebrated Hamas’s October 7 massacres to white people in the Jim Crow era who celebrated after the lynching of Black people.

“I was profoundly shaken not only by October 7, but by the aftermath,” Torres, a Black Bronx Democrat, said Friday in a speech at Central Synagogue, a prominent Reform congregation in midtown Manhattan. “I found it utterly horrifying. To see fellow Americans openly cheering and celebrating the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And for me, the aftermath of October 7 revealed a barbarity of the American heart that reminded me of an earlier and darker time in our nation’s history, a time when the public mobs of Jim Crow would openly celebrate the lynching of African Americans.”

Protests have proliferated since October 7, when Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, kidnapped around 240 and brutalized thousands more in an invasion from Gaza. They have grown as Israel has waged a war in Gaza to eliminate the terror group, and especially as casualties mounted: So far, close to 25,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and non-combatants and is also believed to tally civilians killed by errant rockets fired by terror groups.

A number of the protests have decried the October 7 violence on Israelis, but others have skated over the initial massacres or have embraced Hamas and described its atrocities as resistance.

Torres, a member of the progressive caucus in Congress, has garnered a reputation as an unstinting supporter of Israel. He has duked it out online with fellow progressives in debates over Israel, a dynamic that has only intensified since October 7. Torres is heavily funded by AIPAC and donors aligned with the pro-Israel lobby, and spoke at a massive rally for Israel in Washington on November 14.

In his speech, Torres alluded to the controversies that assailed elite universities after the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania told Congress that calls to commit genocide against Jews did not necessarily violate the schools’ codes of conduct. The ensuing uproar drove Harvard’s and Penn’s presidents to resign.

“What we’ve seen in the aftermath of October 7, is appalling silence and indifference and cowardice from so called leaders in our society from institutions that we once respected and admired,” he said. “And if we as a society cannot bring ourselves to condemn the murder of innocents with moral clarity, then we must ask, what are we becoming as a society? What does that reveal about the depths of antisemitism in the American soul?”

I had the honor of delivering the annual MLK sermon at Central Synagogue.  My speech touches on a range of topics and themes: October 7th, Jim Crow, Leo Frank, MLK, Elie Wiesel, silence, indifference, moral clarity, nonviolence, Israel, Am Yisrael Chai, Hatikvah, and hope. pic.twitter.com/stxqxzgyLi — Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) January 16, 2024

Central is a locus for some of the city’s wealthiest liberal Jewish families, many of whom are also firm supporters of Israel. Dr. Shonni Silverberg, the synagogue president, introduced Torres as a champion of progressive priorities as well as an advocate for Israel, and noted that he is the first openly LGBTQ representative elected from the Bronx.

“Ritchie remains steadfastly focused on the priorities of his South Bronx constituents, expanding access to safe and affordable housing, rebuilding New York economically and ensuring that no child goes hungry and that all receive a good education,” she said. “But he has also shown himself both in and out of Congress to be a great friend of the American Jewish community and Israel.”

--

==

I was shocked, but not surprised. Shocked at how openly, how loudly and how quickly pro-Hamas, pro-terrorism supporters emerged from their Postcolonial Studies, Gender Studies, Intersectional Feminism Studies and other fraudulent sewers in the ivory towers long before Israel ever fired a shot back.

I was not surprised, however, since antisemitism is a cornerstone of Intersectionality, as I posted about more than two years ago:

I naïvely expected that they'd go, "whoa, we didn't mean it like that, that's not what we were after," the standard No True Scotman tactic to distance their enlightened antisemitism from the antisemitism of murderous Islamic jihadists.

But they went the other way and leaned into it, cheering it on, while others tried to gaslight everyone with the usual array of denials that they weren't saying what they were openly saying, and that anyway, if they were saying it, that's not what they meant.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Greg Owen at LGBTQ Nation:

In a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, the embattled Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu invoked Hamas’ and Iran’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people to make his case for full support of Israel’s objectives in the war in Gaza. Standing before a packed House chamber, Netanyahu was adamant Israel’s continuing prosecution of the war was an existential battle of good against evil in the fight against “radical Islam” spread by Iran, whom he blamed for funding Hamas and Israel’s other enemies and for stoking protests in the U.S. against Isreal’s continuing war in Gaza.

“For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests going on right now outside this building — not that many, but they’re there and throughout the city,” Netanyahu told the assembled lawmakers. “Well, I have a message for these protesters: When the tyrants of Tehran — who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, —are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

Republicans leapt to their feet in agreement. Throughout the speech, Netanyahu’s reception was audibly more rapturous on the GOP side of the aisle, as Republicans rose repeatedly while most Democrats offered a respectful but more reserved reaction. There were several notable absences during Netanyahu’s address, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Vice President Kamala Harris who cited a previously scheduled campaign event. As president of the Senate, Harris would normally preside over a joint session of Congress. She’ll meet with Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday.

Gay Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of Israel’s most vocal supporters since the October 7 attack, was in attendance, while out Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Becca Balint (D-VT) all declined to make an appearance. In his speech, Netanyahu “saluted” the fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina who protected an American flag against whom the prime minister described as “anti-Israel” protesters, inspiring the most jingoistic moment of the event, with full-throated chants of “USA! USA!’ from the Republican side of the aisle. “That’s amazing,” Netanyahu continued while speaking about the college demonstrators. “Absolutely amazing. Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza,” Netanyahu added, earning some laughs from the right side of the aisle. “They might as well hold up signs saying ‘Chickens for KFC.'” His comment referenced the fast-food chain known for serving fried chicken.

During Wednesday’s joint address to Congress, Israel Apartheid State PM Benjamin Netanyahu made disgusting pinkwashing comments insinuating that LGBTQ+ folks protesting Israel’s atrocities using Gays For Gaza/Queers For Palestine signage may as well be supporting “chickens for KFC.”

[louisdotmp3]

btw the list of democrats who voted to censure rashida tlaib over her criticism of israel:

Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.)

Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.)

Rep. Angie Craig (Minn.)

Rep. Don Davis (N.C.)

Rep. Lois Frankel (Fla.)

Rep. Jared Golden (Maine)

Rep. Dan Goldman (N.Y.)

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.)

Rep. Greg Landsman (Ohio)

Rep. Susie Lee (Nev.)

Rep. Kathy Manning (N.C.)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (Fla.)

Rep. Wiley Nickel (N.C.)

Rep. Chris Pappas (N.H.)

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.)

Rep. Pat Ryan (N.Y.)

Rep. Brad Schneider (Ill.)

Rep. Kim Schrier (Wash.)

Rep. Darren Soto (Fla.)

Rep. Ritchie Torres (N.Y.)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.)

Rep. Frederica Wilson (Fla.)

[posttexasstressdisorder]

We will soon live in a Post-Chi-Chi world.

"Ideocracy" got NOTHIN' on us now!

[eretzyisrael]

He is indeed the best. Thank you, @repritchie We value your voice.

jewishlifenow

[dragoneyes618]

The Second-Term Congressman from the Bronx spoke to The Jewish Press about the benefits of visiting Israel, facing far-left hate, and the future of Israel and Gaza

The Jewish Press: Hi, thank you so much for making time to speak to us. And I know the Jewish community does greatly appreciate your support. It’s been absolutely incredible.

Rep. Torres: Well, that’s too kind, but I appreciate it.

You’ve said that your positive stance toward Israel was heavily shaped by your visit there in 2015. You’ve called it one of the most transformative experiences of your life. Do you think things would be different if more opponents of Israel would actually visit, as you did? And does ignorance about what Israel is about lead to the hostility toward Israel that we are seeing? Or is it just the age-old deep-seated antisemitism rearing its ugly head?

My experience tells me that there’s no substitute for firsthand experience with Israel. It’s the best form of education. And I find that the most vociferous critics of the Jewish State have actually never gone to Israel, and have never seen the facts on the ground with their own eyes.

You know, were it not for my own engagement with Israel, I would have never become a Zionist. I grew up in a community that was almost exclusively Latino and African American; I had no engagement with the Jewish community. And then when I became a [City] Council member in 2014, I was invited by the Jewish Community Relations Council to go on a delegation to Israel. And as you point out, I’ve often described it as one of the most transformative experiences of my life – going to Yad Vashem, going to Masada, going to a place like Sderot. And I remember speaking to the local mayor of Sderot who said that the majority of his children struggle with post-traumatic stress, because families like his live under the threat of rocket fire.

I remember seeing bus stops doubling as bomb shelters. I thought to myself, imagine the sheer trauma of a five-year-old who’s seeking refuge in a bomb shelter while rockets are being fired and sirens are going off and adults are panicking. And there’s nothing but pandemonium. I come from the Bronx where families often live in fear of bullets, gun violence. But no one in the United States lives in fear of rockets; none of us as Americans worry that Mexico and Canada are going to fire rockets into American homes and communities. And so my first trip to Israel enabled me to realize early on that Israel faces a level of insecurity that has no equivalent in the American experience.

And I tell people, “Look, I’m not going to tell you what to think about Israel. But I will tell you how to think: Before you rush to judge Israel, you should actually go there and speak to both Israelis and Palestinians, speak to both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, you know, go to a place like Sderot and see the facts on the ground with your own eyes. And I guarantee you that if you have an open heart and an open mind, you’re going to adopt a view of Israel that is far more complicated than the cartoonish portrayal that percolates on social media platforms and on college campuses.

Supporting Israel used to be a consensus issue in the United States. Now we see large numbers of the younger generations, especially on the Democratic side, expressing very anti-Israel views, including gleefully calling for the destruction of Israel – that’s becoming more and more commonplace. How in the world did we get here? What is going on? And where are we headed? Will the support for Israel further erode or will it stay on the margins?

There is nothing accidental about anti-Zionism in America. There has been a concerted effort by movements like BDS to indoctrinate the next generation of Americans with a visceral and fanatical hatred for Israel as a Jewish State. And that’s why in the wake of October 7, we saw young Americans cheering and celebrating October 7. We saw young Americans downplaying and denying October 7. But none of that is an accident – it is the consequence, it is the culmination of a long process of dehumanizing both the Jewish community and the Jewish State.

On Christmas this year, anti-Israel vandals attacked your Bronx office with red paint and a bloodied baby doll. How did you deal with the experience, and have you ever been verbally or physically threatened for positions you’ve taken?

There is no issue on which I face more hate, harassment, and death threats than on the subject of Israel. If anything ever happens to me, if I’m ever assassinated, people should assume that it was likely anti-Zionist activists.

There is no issue in national politics that provokes more raw emotion and rage than the subject of Israel, and it’s been consuming for me because I’ve been the target of overwhelming venom and vitriol from the anti-Israel far left. And as you pointed out, there have been anti-Israel activists who have vandalized my office with red paint., claiming that I have blood on my hands. There have been anti-Israel activists who have who have installed posters throughout the New York City subway system, accusing me of bombing hospitals and killing healthcare workers, calling me a genocide enabler.

So I’m facing a level of character assassination that I’ve never seen in my life, and never thought I would ever see.

Do you support to continuous funding from the United States to the PA?

I would support funding for humanitarian assistance, but I strongly oppose funding for UNRWA. And I strongly oppose funding for pay-for-slay.

But perhaps if they could find a more moderate government there then things could change?

There’s been a fundamental failure of Palestinian leadership. Between a terrorist theocracy in the form of Hamas and a kleptocracy in the form of the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians are utterly lacking leadership.

What would you like to see post-war in terms of Israeli government and the government of Gaza?

What I want to see is the de-Hamasification of Gaza, the removal of Hamas from power, the de-radicalization of Palestinian civil society and replacement of Hamas with a regime that’s able and willing to make peace with Israel. If we can find a regime that brokers peace with Israel, it would be a game-changer in the Gaza Strip.

But Israel cannot do it alone. Israel has got be in partnership with the United States and with the Sunni Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE. And so it’s going to have to be a collective effort.

Do you have any moderate names in mind among the Palestinians that could take on that mantle?

As I said, there’s a leadership crisis in the Palestinian national movement. I’m aware of no leader who can rise to the challenge. But I hope that I’m pleasantly surprised.

Yours is a great American success story, one which does not include a college degree. A boy from the projects who built a successful political career. Today, as you know, antisemitism, some of it disguised as anti-Zionism, is raging on college campuses now. And university leaders, as we’ve seen, have been thoroughly derelict. What does this say about the future of university education? Is the academy losing its luster? And what can we expect from Generation Z who are being steeped in this environment when they take the reins tomorrow?

When people ask me why [I am] so pro-Israel, I tell them it’s because I dropped out of college. I did not graduate from Harvard or MIT or UPenn. But I did graduate from the school of moral common sense. I’m a common sense public servant.

You know, the congressional hearing on antisemitism left a profound impression on me. If you had asked the average Bronx resident, “Is calling for a genocide of Jews harassment?,” there’s no doubt in my mind that the average Bronx resident would tell you, “Of course it’s harassment!” But if you ask an academic or an activist is calling for genocide of Jews “harassment,” the response you will get is a coldly legalistic formulaic response. It’s quote, unquote “context dependent.”

And it seems to me that the loss of moral common sense is not a bug but a feature of what higher education has become. There is a deep rot of antisemitism and anti-Zionism at the core of the higher education industrial complex. And history tells us that higher education is often a breeding ground for antisemitism. Germany was the most educated society on Earth in the early 20th century, before committing the Holocaust. And so higher education is no guarantee of virtue.

[trascapades]

🎨✊🏿#ArtIsAWeapon

Shout out to these and all artists who use their art practices and platforms to fight against oppression and injustice around the world! 

And fuck @instagram for preventing me from reposting this information from @ajplusenglish-blog . The platform logged me out of my own account and "warned" me that it could be permanently removed.

#ArtistActivists #CeasefireNow #Gaza #Sudan 

Reposted @ajplus A group of anonymous artists hacked advertisements on dozens of New York City subway trains to bring attention to U.S. tax dollars being used to fund Israel’s attacks in Gaza. ⁣

 ⁣

The guerrilla artists visually mimicked ads typically seen on the subway and replaced them with commentary on Israel’s attacks or quotes from Palestinians. One poster looks like a hospital ad, but features images of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden, and New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, with text reading, “Looking to kill healthcare workers? Look no further.” ⁣

 ⁣

The act of public disruption came the night before New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she’d be sending members of the National Guard to the busiest MTA locations in response to a handful of recent violent incidents at stations. ⁣

 ⁣

“The subway is a space for, and occupied by, normal working New Yorkers. In this time where public services are being cut and money is being sent overseas to fund war in our names, we want to take back that public space,” one of the hackers said in a press release. ⁣

 ⁣

“Our daily lives and commutes should not — in fact cannot — continue as usual.” ⁣

 ⁣

Writers Against the War on Gaza, Art Against Displacement and the Palestinian Youth Movement cross-posted a video about the ad hacks on Instagram and asked people who spot the ads to snap photos and share them with hashtags #MTAArts and #FreePalestine. ⁣

⁣

…⁣

Producer: Emily Barger⁣

⁣

#News #Gaza #Palestinian #Activism #NYC #Subway #Palestine #Israel #Protest #MTAArts #Resist #Disrupt

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Corey Walker

A caucus affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a left-wing political organization that counts members of the US Congress among its ranks, has issued a public endorsement of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. 

The Red Star Caucus, a self-described “Marxist revolutionary” faction of the DSA, published an article on Friday glorifying the actions of Hamas, an Islamist organization that launched the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 by slaughtering more than 1,200 people throughout southern Israel. The caucus argued that lending support to the terrorist group is necessary to secure “Palestinian liberation.”

“To support a resistance without Hamas is to support something which does not exist. It is to support no resistance at all,” the group wrote. “And in turn, to spend our time on criticism of Hamas as an organization validates the widespread opinion that Hamas is an existential danger (too extreme for even the communists!) and lends credence to Israel’s justification of its onslaught. When we hear every anti-Palestinian group call for the destruction of Hamas, do we lend our voices to those calls, or stand with Palestine and its resistance?”

The group added that support for Hamas’ genocidal ambitions against Israel are necessary to secure a socialist future. 

“We must recognize what our struggle for socialism entails, and who our allies are. Those allies will be the resistance movements which actually exist, the opponents of capitalism and imperialism around the world!” the Red Star Caucus added. 

The Democratic Socialists of America, one of the country’s premier leftist political advocacy organizations, has mobilized in recent years to elect anti-Israel members to Congress. Influential lawmakers such as US Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Greg Casar (D-TX), and Cori Bush (D-MO) are all current members of the socialist organization. Others such as Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Summer Lee (D-PA) are former members.

None of these lawmakers responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment on the Red Star Caucus’s endorsement of Hamas.

However, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a staunch supporter of Israel, slammed the Red Star Caucus as “antisemitic” on X/Twitter. 

[progressivepower]

Democrats Plan To Introduce A Resolution To Censure Rep. George Santos. "I have a message to House Republicans who, for too long, have been protecting Mr. Santos, who has disgraced the United States Congress," Rep. Ritchie Torres tweeted. http://ow.ly/InQ9104OtIa

[sethshead]

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said on social media that “the only just outcome” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “the peaceful coexistence” of an Israeli and a Palestinian state. “I am under no illusion that a two-state solution will happen in the immediate future but to assert that it should NEVER happen — that either Jews or Palestinians should never have self-determination — is morally wrong,” Torres continued.

Once again, Rep. Torres distinguishes himself as a voice of nuance and peace in this conflict.

I don't know what exactly are the conditions for aid the 18 senators have established, but if they focus on the "day after" need to lay all possible groundwork for eventual Palestinian autonomy and independence, I would be on board. As much as I am a Zionist and side unreservedly with Israel against Hamas in the current war, nothing will have been achieved if a two-state future is off the table. Netanyahu's vision only sets the stage for unsustainable occupation and future conflict. It is a dispiriting confirmation of what we all knew he believed and was working toward, despite his perverse willingness to live alongside a Hamas that never promised anything but what it did Oct. 7. Israel is in desperate need of better leadership, as are the Palestinians. If that is achieved, there is good reason to hope for peace.

After all this is the calculus: Israel is going nowhere and neither are the Palestinians. Both Jews and Palestinians demand and have every right to national self-determination, and each possesses its own form of indigeneity within the borders of the former British Mandate of Palestine. Neither people wishes to live as a minority under the other's rule. That leaves only partition into two sovereign and viable states as a just solution. Zionists understood this in 1947, but have inconsistently acted in accordance with this logic. The Palestinians, well, when they're ready to accept this conclusion, there has to be something concrete as an incentive for conceding to reality.