Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 18, 2021

Torres also received at least $28,000 in individual donations from prominent Zionists, including some with anti-Muslim and anti-Arab views: Nina Rosenwald, the founder of the Gatestone Institute, a think tank that has called for a ban on all Muslim immigration, gave $1,000 to Torres; Marty Peretz, the former New Republic editor who once wrote that Muslim life is cheap and Arab society is backward, gave approximately $2,600. Haim Saban, the Hollywood mogul who called for more scrutiny of Muslims after the 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, donated $2,800, as did Gottesman, the DMFI board member, who once wrote: Gaza is full of monsters. Time to burn the whole place.

Torres would go on to win the Democratic primary with 32% of the vote, easily defeating his 11 opponents. The evening that voting closed in New York, June 23rd, demonstrators marched through the streets of Tel Aviv to protest Netanyahus intention to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Torres did not acknowledge the furor over annexation two days later, when he made his first post-election public appearance at an Israeli Embassy event to celebrate gay pride, alongside Israels pugnacious then-ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, and an Israeli army lieutenant colonel. In pre-recorded remarks, Torres celebrated gay life in Israel and said that he feels at home in Israel, as though it were my own country, because it has values that are recognizably democratic and recognizably pro-LGBTQ.

ITS HARD TO SAY EXACTLY WHY Torres has chosen to be Israels foremost defender among his generation of legislators; Torres declined an interview request from Jewish Currents to discuss his views in-depth, and his office did not reply to a detailed list of questions. But there are plenty of reasons for a politician of color to stick to the party line. Black politicians often face especially intense pushback for expressing sympathy for Palestinians or criticism of Israel; if they dont reverse themselves on Palestine, donor-powered campaigns sometimes seek to undermine their electoral prospects. This pattern reaches back decades, to the late 1970s, when Andrew Young, the first Black ambassador to the United Nations, was forced to resign after meeting with a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Half a century later, Black lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar still contend with charges of antisemitism whenever they raise the issue of Israels human rights abuses. Running for election in 2020, Sen. Raphael Warnock was called the most anti-Israel candidate anywhere in the country after his opponent turned up a sermon in which he had expressed empathy for Palestinians. (Warnock responded by embracing a more establishment line, condemning BDS and emphasizing the critical nature of our current partnership to Israel.) As Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, wrote at the time: Black politicians who draw on their own experiences to support nationalist and anti-imperialist movements in the developing world have been accused of anti-Americanism. And in a political culture where Israel is seen as embodying the same values as the United States, Black support for the Palestinian cause has often been deemed anti-American too.

On the other hand, there are benefits to following Washingtons orthodoxy on Israel, including the possibility of an alliance with the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), who wield immense influence within the party and whose members, like Reps. Jim Clyburn and Hakeem Jeffries, occupy top positions in the House Democratic Caucus. The CBCs influence within the Democratic Party was a product of the civil rights movements gains, and they challenged not only Republicans but also the Democratic establishment for paying insufficient attention to the struggles of the Black working class. But as the energy of the civil rights movement waned, caucus figures began to govern like typical politicians, wrote Princeton University historian Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in a June 2020 article for The New York Times. Staying in office became a priority, and as black legislators, they often had fewer resources. That meant more fund-raising from entities that may have been at odds with their constituencies. It also meant a more conservative political disposition, including on Israel, which many caucus members have continued to support even as its military occupation has grown more entrenched.

Read the rest here:
Ritchie Torres Is the Future of "Pro-Israel" Politics - Jewish Currents

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
Tags: