What then about the Palestinians?

To the editor:

(re: “Disappointed, but still support,” Aug. 17)

Congressman Ritchie Torres reminds me a lot of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.  Whereas the latter pushes policies designed to erase African Americans and LGBTQ people from the history books, the congressman does the same regarding Palestinians. 

To write a letter discussing the state of Israel without even once mentioning its Palestinian population — a feat Mr. Torres manages with apparent ease — is to assume his readers are either totally ignorant, or totally insensitive to the murderous brutality with which the Israeli government has treated the Palestinian people since the creation of the state in 1948 when three-quarters of a million of them were forcibly (literally) bulldozed — and worse — out of their homes.

Mr. Torres’ blanket, unconditional, “non-negotiable” backing of Israel smacks of a not-so-subtle antisemitism on his part, as it suggests he is OK with the outrageous behavior of the Netanyahu and previous Israeli regimes, and that the self-described Jewish state is incapable of better. 

Even the strongly pro-Israel newspaper The Forward has reported on “a noticeable number” of anti-occupation signs among the Jewish protesters in Israel. Or maybe the congressman thinks his Jewish constituents are incapable of knowing the truth. 

Abraham Lincoln knew better: “You can fool all people some of the time, and some people all the time. But you can never fool all people all the time.”

Worst of all, Mr. Torres’ letter is rife with disingenuousness at best — and likely, because he knows better, flat-out dishonesty. He persists in referring to Israel’s “democracy.”

How it is possible to consider Israel a democracy when that country and its occupied territories — the West Bank and Gaza — where only the Jewish half of the population has civil and political rights.

Perhaps only Ritchie Torres, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump or other Republicans can explain.

Steve Siegelbaum