Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) offered a message of hope that peace in the Middle East is “as close as we have ever been,” in remarks before more than 2,000 people from 60 countries gathered in Midtown Manhattan on Monday for the second day of the American Jewish Committee Global Forum. 

Torres, who was honored with the group’s inaugural Nita M. Lowey Congressional Leadership Award, said that the “future of the Middle East does not belong to the Islamic Republic and its empire of terror.”

“The future of the Middle East belongs to Israel and the Abraham Accords. The future of the Middle East does not belong to hate. The future belongs to hope: hatikva,” Torres continued. “In the grand sweep of history, in the millennia-long Maccabean marathon that is the story of the Jewish people, we are as close as we have ever been to realizing the Abrahamic dream of a world where all the children of Abraham — Jews, Christians and Muslims — can coexist in peace and prosperity. A durable peace is possible, and we as Americans, in the greatest country on earth, have the power — indeed the responsibility — to make it so and make peace.”

Torres also denounced “academics, activists, politicians [and] journalists” who “downplay or even deny the genocidal ideology at the core of” the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel.

“You are not part of the solution,” the congressman said, addressing those he condemned. “You are part of the problem.” 

AJC has presented the Congressional Leadership Award at its global forums annually since 2001 to members of Congress who have demonstrated a commitment to Israel or the Jewish people. Past recipients include Sens. Joseph Lieberman, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Danforth and Richard Lugar as well as Rep. John Lewis.

Earlier this year, the group renamed the award to honor Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who represented Westchester County for more than three decades. Lowey, who died in March at 87, was “a true friend” to AJC, according to its CEO, Ted Deutch.  

Other sessions on Monday included “Exposing Bias: The Truth Behind Media Coverage of Israel,” in which former Jerusalem-based Associated Press correspondent Matti Friedman explained that it’s unlikely mainstream media’s anti-Israel bias will change. In a panel on “The Role of the Jewish Community in Responding to Antisemitism on Campus,” University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker, whose home in a heavily Jewish suburb of Detroit was targeted by anti-Israel vandals several times last year, said that the Trump administration’s federal funding cuts to universities that have not complied with government demands to crackdown on antisemitism risks putting “Jews as the victims.”