Hamas-lovers run wild in NY; Torres predicts violence

Although genocide-supporting, intifada-spreading, Hamas-loving, traffic-stopping vandals continue to rampage through the streets of New York in unrestrained displays of hate, no one’s been seriously hurt.

But that might change.

“The time of violence or assassination of a congressmember is not a question of if, but a matter of when,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, the gay, Black, Latino, Progressive Democrat from the Bronx who is one of Israel’s staunchest backers in Congress.

Torres delivered his warning during an interview with the Riverdale Press following a trifecta of antisemitic vandalism that targeted congressional offices — Torres’ office in Fordham, the Pearl River office of Hudson Valley Republican Rep. Mike Lawler on Dec. 27, and the office of Harlem Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat.

“Most members of Congress like myself have no security,” Torres told CNN. “We’re soft targets. I worry that intimidation and incitement to hate could easily escalate into violence.”

“This is the life we have chosen,” he said, paraphrasing the character Hyman Roth in Godfather II. “I accept the burdens that come with political and public life [and] I try not to stress over it.”

Meanwhile, supporters of the Hamas terrorist regime have been blocking city streets, highways and major transportation hubs including Grand Central Station.

On Christmas day, pro-Hamas demonstrators flooded the streets to “cancel” the holiday and demand a ceasefire, resulting in clashes between protesters and police.

On New Years day, pro-Hamas demonstrators blocked access to JFK Airport before moving onto LaGuardia Airport. Police detoured traffic off the Belt Parkway and restricted access to the AirTrain in a bid to constrain the “Flood JFK For Gaza” protest, which was planned by Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian hate group.

“NYPD, KKK, IDF you’re all the same,” protesters inside an SUV screeched through a megaphone, according to video posted to X, the New York Post reported.

Sixty flights were delayed at JFK, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service, including 15 caused solely by crews arriving at the airport late as the protests impeded traffic for over two hours, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Post said.

“New York City is fast becoming unlivable,” former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote on X on New Year’s day. “You can’t get to the airport or even cross a bridge without massive delays caused by ignorant and hateful people who don’t even know what they are protesting. The Governor and the Mayor are losing control.”

On Christmas day, a doll symbolizing the founder of Christianity was placed at Torres’ office covered in red paint that simulated blood, set amid rubble to suggest a scene out of war-torn Gaza. Torres said the vandals left messages describing the doll as a “Palestinian child messiah.”

Torres, whose district includes heavily-Jewish Riverdale as well as Black and Latino neighborhoods, told the Riverdale Press that no topic gets him more harassment and death threats than the subject of Israel.

“I see the vandalism as part of a broader pattern of intimidation,” Torres said. “I fully support the rights of every American who protests peacefully, but what we’ve seen increasingly from anti-Israel activists is not peaceful protests — we’ve seen attempts at intimidation, harassment, vandalism and even violence at times.”

This was at least the third time in recent months that Torres’ Fordham office was defaced by anti-Israel protestors. Torres was also recently heckled at the 92nd Street Y while speaking about the Abraham Accords.

He said that while members of his staff are shaken by the latest incident, they will soldier on.

“This could only be the beginning,” he said.

“In a post Jan. 6 world, the safety of members of Congress can no longer be taken for granted,” Torres added. “I, for one, will not be intimidated.”

At Lawler’s office, vandals stickers attached by vandals to the entrance stated, “Blood on your hands Mike Lawler,” “Ceasefire,” “Child murder Lawler,” “Gaza is half children,” “25,000+ murdered,” “Mike Lawler resign” and “Palestinian lives matter.”

Referring to the vandalism as “just the latest escalation in the tactics being used by those who sympathize more with Hamas than with Israel,” Lawler emphasized that “I want the Palestinian people to be free from their true oppressors — Hamas, a terrorist organization that has been the governing body in Gaza for nearly two decades and has used the Palestinian people as human shields.”

Referencing the rising death toll Gaza, Torres told the Riverdale Press that the blame lies with Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and not with the Jewish state.

“I think the United States has been constructively pressuring Israel to do everything it can to minimize casualties,” he said. “There should be three operations unfolding at once.”

Those three operations, he said, should be — one, a diplomatic mission to release the hostages; two, a humanitarian operation to bring aid to Gaza citizens in distress, and three, a military operation to remove Hamas from power and prevent another Oct. 7.
He emphasized that none are opposing goals and they should all be accomplished.

Torres compared current political tensions to those of the 1960s, a decade that saw the assassinations of President John Kennedy, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.

“It was certainly much worse in the 1960s, but history has a way of repeating itself, and members of Congress cannot take their safety for granted,” he told CNN.

“To my supporters, thank you for believing in me when few others did,” Torres posted on X on Tuesday. “To my detractors, I gladly suffer your disdain.

Updated to reflect a minor quote correction.