Anti-Israel vandals leave bloody doll dubbed ‘Palestinian child messiah’ outside Rep. Torres’ office
The district office of South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres was vandalized by “anti-Israel extremists” on Christmas Day, with blood-red paint covering a doll representing Jesus Christ — which the congressman took as an attempt to intimidate him over his staunch defense of the Jewish state.
“On Christmas Day, anti-Israel extremists vandalized my Bronx Office with red paint, symbolizing blood,” Torres said in a post on X. “Covered in ‘blood’ is a doll meant to symbolize Jesus, whom the vandals describe as a ‘Palestinian child messiah.’”
“The escalation in intimidation and incitement against Members of Congress feels like it is heading in a dangerous direction,” he added. “I, for one, will not be intimidated.”
The intimidating message echoed a Christmas Day post from “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also drew a link between the situation facing civilians in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas and the infancy of Jesus Christ.
“In the story of Christmas, Christ was born in modern-day Palestine under the threat of a government engaged in a massacre of innocents,” the Bronx and Queens lawmaker wrote on Instagram.
“He was part of a targeted population being indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power. Mary and Joseph, displaced by violence and forced to flee, became refugees in Egypt with a newborn waiting to one day return home,” she added.
“Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians, so much so that the Christian community in Bethlehem has canceled this year’s Christmas Eve celebrations out of both [fear for their] safety and respect.”
Torres has been one of the most outspoken Democrats in favor of providing military assistance to Israel as it fights to eliminate Hamas.
The conflict has split the Democratic coalition, with more now saying they sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people than with Israelis, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.
Torres has come out strongly against antisemitic rhetoric and displays in major US cities, slamming the Democratic Socialists of America for its weak apology after a New York City chapter event failed to condemn Hamas and saw protesters burn Israeli flags and even display a swastika.
The DSA apology denounced the violence but then blamed the Jewish state for being the “root cause” of it, making similar justifications to those made by the likes of Ocasio-Cortez, who is a DSA member.
“The DSA, despite the name, is not democratic. It’s despicable, detestable, disgraceful, and disgraced. The same can be said of anyone who enables them,” Torres said in a post on X at the time.
The rally occurred one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, during which the jihadists killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians and including 33 American citizens. Roughly 240 were also taken hostage back to Gaza.
“Something is rotten in the state of America. When the institutional leaders in our country cannot condemn the cold-blooded murder of Israeli children and civilians with moral clarity, one must ask: what kind of society are we becoming?” Torres also wrote in an op-ed for The Post that month.
“The time has come to confront not only the symptoms but the disease: a Democratic Socialist industrial complex that indoctrinates young Americans with an anti-Israel hatred so virulent that it renders them indifferent to the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
Torres has also denounced the spread of antisemitism on American college campuses, where students and professors alike have defended the actions of Hamas.
The group’s surprise terror attack prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare war on Hamas, launching airstrikes against its commanders and a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have since been killed during the fighting in the densely packed region, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health has reported.
The entity does not differentiate between civilian deaths and terrorist deaths, and Hamas often uses civilians as human shields by placing their operational posts and weapons stockpiles in mosques, hospitals and schools.
A senior Israel Defense Forces official earlier this month confirmed that roughly two civilians have been killed for every dead Hamas terrorist as a result.
