Ilhan Omar rebuked for saying fellow Democratic lawmaker is ‘happy’ about dead Palestinians

Rep. Ritchie Torres has called out fellow Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar for saying he was “happy” that Palestinians are being killed.

Mr. Torres said he resented her comments.

“Every casualty is a tragedy. Every war is a humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Torres said on CNN. “We have to keep in mind the causes of this war. Israel did not start the war. The war was imposed upon Israel by the barbaric terrorism of Hamas, which butchered 1,400 Israelis, including babies.”

Mr. Torres of New York and Ms. Omar of Minnesota are both members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is the most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party and the largest Democratic caucus in Congress. The rift between these two lawmakers reflects a growing divide on the left between Democrats’ traditional support for Israel and a growing pro-Palestinian faction.

Mr. Torres also pointed out that Ms. Omar has voted against Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, but the system “protects Israeli civilians from relentless rocket fire.”

“Were it not for Iron Dome interceptions, there would be far more dead Israelis, far more, by orders of magnitude,” he said. “And so the policy position she has taken would have led to more dead Israelis and more dead Palestinians.”

Ms. Omar sharply criticized Mr. Torres last week for supporting Israel.

“How many more killings is enough for you,” Ms. Omar asked Friday at a news conference. “Is it 1,000 more, 2,000 more, 3,000? How many more Palestinians would make you happy if they died? Would you be fine if all the people of Gaza were gone, would that make you happy? Would that be the thing that makes you proud? And maybe that’s the question you should ask Ritchie, how many more Palestinian lives is he comfortable with?”

Mr. Torres also responded to Ms. Omar’s comments on Instagram.

“Congress Member Ilhan Omar falsely accused me of being ‘happy’ about the death of Palestinians. It is the most vicious lie that one can tell about a colleague,” he wrote. “Congress Member Omar voted against Iron Dome, which (a) protects Israeli Jews and Arabs from thousands of rockets and (b) deescalates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saving both Israeli and Palestinian lives.”

“Given Congress Member Omar’s opposition to Iron Dome, one must ask: how many Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinians must die from endless rocket fire and escalated conflict before she summons the moral decency to support Iron Dome?” he said. “Without Iron Dome, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust would have been deadlier.”