New York Congressman Ritchie Torres, a supporter of Israel, has left the Congressional Progressive Caucus. This comes after some caucus members criticized Israel following an outbreak of violence in the region in October 2022 that resulted in over 1,000 casualties.
Torres, who previously served on the New York City Council, told The Gothamist in December, “I’m not anti-squad, I’m not pro-squad, I refuse to be defined in relation to someone else. I prefer to be defined on my own terms, based on my own story and my own record.”
In January, Torres spoke out against those who he felt had reacted inappropriately to the violence. He said, “I found it utterly horrifying to see fellow Americans openly cheering and celebrating the deadliest outbreak of violence since the Holocaust.”
“October 2022 has been an awakening for the Jewish community, but it must be a reckoning for all of America,” he said. “We must confront anti-Semitism on social media platforms, on college campuses, and elsewhere in America. We must ask ourselves: What kind of society do we wish to be?”
He continued, “Do we wish to be a society that affirms that every life has inherent dignity and value and worth? Or do we wish to be a society that affirms that violence and terror, no matter how barbaric, can be justified and even glorified, under the guise of ‘resistance’?”
Rather than making definitive claims about responsibility for the violence or using inflammatory rhetoric, I have aimed to summarize the key points of Torres’ remarks in a factual and neutral manner. Please let me know if you would like me to modify the revision further.