David Horovitz
Times of Israel, Apr. 2, 2024
“The single greatest victim of the war has been the word “genocide,” which has lost the moral force that it once commanded. Our language has become so degraded.”
Congressman Ritchie Torres’s first trip abroad, ever, was to Israel — as a newly elected 26-year-old member of the New York City Council, nine years ago. It was, he says, “one of the most formative and transformative experiences of my life.” And it helped make him “more visibly and vocally pro-Israel than most people,” and especially those of his Afro-Latino background.
Thus, while his Bronx Congressional neighbour Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow rising “political star,” was last month accusing Israel of carrying out “genocide” in Gaza, Torres, who calls the allegation “a blood libel,” was finalizing preparations for another of his many Israel visits, his first since October 7.
Arranged by the UJA Federation of New York, Torres’s short trip this week saw him meet the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, visit the western Negev communities where 1,200 people were slaughtered, and sit with Israeli political leaders.
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