Profile in Courage

Ritchie Torres in Kibbutz Nir Oz on March 29

One of the issues I have with all the harsh criticism of Israel’s conduct in war (even from some of its friends) is that it lacks perspective. The sympathy Israel’s critics have for the legitimately and deeply suffering ‘innocent’ Palestinians are going through rarely includes the reasons they are experiencing it.

There are reasons.  Reasons that do not in any way include the desire by Israel for Palestinians to suffer. Only Hamas has such desires. They are determined  to maximize and exaggerate casualties as a strategy to increase world sympathy. 

But that isn’t even what I’m talking about –  truthful though it is. I am talking about how and way this war started. 

First the why. It is well known by now – especially by the US - that the Hamas charter is all about the genocide of the Jewish people. All of us! First in ‘Palestine’ and then all over the world (...channeling Hitler but with a religious fervor rivaling that of Hitler. One of their heroes)

That was well known even before the October 7^th. But what was not as well known is how determined they are and what lengths they will go to to carry out their mission.  On October 7^th it became extremely well known. In case anyone has forgotten what happened on that day let me remind you. 

1200 Jews were mercilessly slaughtered in some of the most brutal and barbaric ways imaginable, Jewish women were raped, sexually mutilated and beheaded. Babies were burned alive; and over 200 hostages taken. (...over a hundred of which remain six months after the war began with some of the female captives continually being raped in front of the captive husbands.  

And this doesn’t even address the hundreds of thousands of Jews living near the borders of Gaza and Lebanon (Hezbollah) that have been displaced form their home (and in many cases - jobs)  indefinitely fearing similarly brutal attacks

I rarely hear anything at all about that from all those crying over ‘civilian’ Palestinian casualties being thrown under the Israeli bus by Hamas. It is either completely ignored or at best given very short shrift.

Even if those Palestinians were completely innocent (which is hardly the case according to a Palestinian insider) to ignore the cause of all this while crying over unavoidable causalities of war where the enemy is determined to increase those casualties... well.- that kind of sympathy disgusts me. Even if it is the president that expresses it. 

I am, however, glad that at least one Democrat has not ignored it at all. He understands the real reasons for all the Palestinian casualties and suffering. And he has the courage to express this truth despite the fact that it is not the current narrative of his own president and his own party.  

Now there are a few other Democrats like him. But not most Democrats – including Jewish Democrats  that seem to feel the pain of ‘innocent’ Palestinians a lot more than they do the pain of Israelis that have gone through the worst butchery since the Holocaust. And in many ways they still are. His name is Ritchie Torres.- a profile in courage and  a true hero who refuses to bend to the party line when he knows it is mistaken:

In the two-minute clip, shared on April 4, the Bronx congressman parries accusations from pro-Palestinian activists that he supports the starvation of children during a genocide in Gaza. In response, he denies that Israel is committing genocide and blames the humanitarian crisis in Gaza on Hamas stealing aid meant for civilians. Both arguments hew closely to the Israeli government line. 

A pro-Israel activist called Torres a “king” for how he responded to the activists. An opponent wrote, “Torres lies, people die!”

But for Torres himself, the exchange was a sharp turn from the reception he got two days earlier, when he wrapped up a three-day trip to Israel. There, he told the New York Jewish Week, he was treated like a celebrity. 

Indeed. He knows what the Israeli people know Even those Israelis that hate their prime minister know in their hearts. Torres is willing to take his lumps for expressing the unvarnished truth. If only his fellow Democrats and all the knee jerk liberals in media and entertainment weren’t blinded by the high casualty numbers  understood what Torres understands....  and realizes that Israel has no choice but to obliterate Hamas from the face of the earth regardless of how many civilians Hamas places in their way.... 

If the Jewish people want to eliminate their most immediate source of mortal danger, they have no choice. Maybe the president should listen to Torres too instead of looking at his poll numbers in Michigan and Minneapolis.