Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) noted that Israel's critics continue to criticize it even when it does what they previously said they wanted following the recent assassinations of Hezbollah leader Ruad Shukr and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
"I am old enough to remember the international community pressuring Israel to pursue a 'surgical' approach to rooting out Hamas—the very thing for which Israel is now being condemned by the international community. What can be less indiscriminate and more targeted than surgically removing the leader of the terrorist organization that orchestrated October 7th?" Torres wrote on X.
"Israel is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t," he said.
Torres has emerged as one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of Israel in the Democratic party since the Hamas massacre of October 7.
On Wednesday, Torres defended Israel from accusations that the assassinations of Shukr and Haniyeh consituted unnecessary "escalation."
"When Iran calls for the destruction of Israel, no one cries ‘escalation,’" Torres wrote on X. "When Iran wages a shadow war on Israel through proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis (to name only a few), no one cries ‘escalation.’"
"The selective cries of escalation only seem to come when Israel dares to defend itself in response to Iranian aggression," he said.