{"id":15888,"date":"2024-02-22T06:47:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/22\/progressive-democrat-caucus-loses-another-member-over-anti-israel-positions\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T06:47:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:47:34","slug":"progressive-democrat-caucus-loses-another-member-over-anti-israel-positions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/22\/progressive-democrat-caucus-loses-another-member-over-anti-israel-positions\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive Democrat caucus loses another member over anti-Israel positions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Divisions in the Democrat Party\u2019s progressive wing are continuing to deepen in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, forcing some pro-Israel Democrats out of key factions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. has left the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, Axios first reported on Wednesday, making him the second Democrat to depart the caucus in recent months. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., left in November last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Torres has been at odds with some of his Democratic colleagues, including far-left \u2018Squad\u2019 members about his support for Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December, he and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., clashed after she suggested Torres was comfortable with Palestinian casualties as a result of Israel\u2019s response to the Hamas attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Every casualty is a tragedy, every war is a humanitarian crisis, but we have to keep in mind the causes of the war,\u2019 he told CNN host Dana Bash in an interview. \u2018Israel did not start the war, the war was imposed upon Israel by the barbaric terrorism of Hamas, which butchered 1,400 Israelis, including babies,\u2019 he said, referring to the terrorist attack on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.<\/p>\n

\u2018You know, my colleague, Rep. Omar, has voted against Iron Dome, which is a missile defense system that protects Israeli civilians from relentless rocket fire,\u2019 he told CNN host Dana Bash. \u2018Were it not for Iron Dome interceptions, there would be far more dead Israelis \u2013 far more, by orders of magnitude. So the policy position that she has taken would have led to more dead Israelis and more dead Palestinians.\u2019<\/p>\n

In December, Torres responded to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and other hard-left figures after she seemed unable to explain why there was a hesitation among some progressives to condemn Hamas\u2019 sexual violence against Israeli women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CNN\u2019s Bash asked Torres in an intervew why it was so difficult for progressives to \u2018unequivocally call out the barbaric sexual violence against Israeli women.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Look, there\u2019s often been a double standard against Israel when it comes to condemning the sheer butchery and barbarism of Hamas,\u2019 Torres said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Public officials have a moral obligation to speak with clarity rather than caveats. And I found it deeply troubling, for example, that the U.N. Women, the so-called women\u2019s rights arm of the United Nations, went 50 days without commenting on or condemning the sexual atrocities that Hamas perpetrated against Israeli women. For me, this is not about politics. This is about decency. It is indecent to deny or downplay or \u2018both sides\u2019 the rape and sexual violence against Israeli women on Oct. 7.\u2019<\/p>\n

Torres was also one of 22 Democrats to vote to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for her anti-Israel comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Torres\u2019 office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital\u2019s Alexander Hall and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Divisions in the Democrat Party\u2019s progressive wing are continuing to deepen in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, forcing some pro-Israel Democrats out of key factions. \u00a0 Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. has left the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, Axios first reported on Wednesday, making him the second Democrat to depart the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}