To his credit, Jake Tapper at CNN provided one of the few TV news reports. “Israeli police are using forensic evidence, video and witness testimony and interrogations of suspects to document cases of rape amid the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel,” an accompanying report from CNN.com explained. “Women and girls caught in the rampage were brutalized sexually, as well as physically tortured and killed, witnesses to the aftermath say.” The report went on to detail “horrific, almost inhuman, crimes” that first responders found “unimaginable.”
The human rights community that would normally highlight atrocities against women has been bizarrely silent. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, a former member on the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, told Haaretz, “I knew right away that sexual violence was part of the events of Oct. 7, but obviously, I could not have known the extent of the cruelty that Hamas engaged in. …. Unlike any previous incidents of ‘conflict-related sexual violence,’ as the U.N. calls it, the Hamas terrorists had body cameras and they filmed their actions. They broadcast it both to the families of the victims and on social media, so the horrific footage emerged right away.” She understandably feels “betrayed” by the international human rights community as do other Israeli women activists.
The evidence is accessible and overwhelming (thanks largely to Hamas’s social media blitz of its actions), including eyewitness accounts (even of gang rapes). “Then there’s the video of a teenage Israeli woman being pulled by terrorists from the back of a vehicle in Gaza. In the video, she is barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, and as she turns, you can see the back of her sweatpants covered in blood that came from between her legs,” writes Monica Osbourne of the Jewish Journal. “These videos, broadcast on social media and Telegram for the world to see, were filmed and shared by Hamas with pride. There is no effort to hide or minimize what they are doing to women. In fact, the rape and brutalization of women has been the crucial hallmark of this brutal attack.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry recently tweeted out this short appeal:
Sheryl Sandberg also has used her voice to call attention to the issue.
The willful disregard of sexual violence against Israeli women and girls goes beyond mere ignorance to actual denial. Samantha Pearson, the head of the rape center at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, signed a letter denying the rapes occurred. Thankfully, the university fired her and issued a blistering denunciation of the letter.
The attacks were so gruesome and barbaric that the impulse to look away can be overwhelming. And yet when other mass atrocities against women occur, there is no shortage of outrage and condemnation. One is left wondering why Israeli women and girls count for so little in the eyes of so many.
Many Jews, especially Jewish women, feel betrayed by their allies with whom they have protested, lobbied, marched and advocated in support of human rights regardless of the race, ethnicity, religion or nationality of the victims. Sadly, the morally indefensible effort to deflect blame from Hamas has now entered an even more egregious period of moral blindness, cruelty and, yes, antisemitism.
Distinguished person of the week
The United Auto Workers ratified new contracts with the Big Three auto manufacturing companies, locking in historic gains. The Post reported that the deals secured “raises of at least 25 percent over 4½ years” and additional perks that mark one of “the labor movement’s biggest wins in decades.” UAW President Shawn Fain, who had been widely criticized by business interests and many pundits for greed, pulled off an effective labor and public relations campaign highlighting the excessive salaries paid to chief executives and workers’ sacrifices during lean years for the industry.
Fain promised in a statement to “take our strike muscle and our fighting spirit to the rest of the industries we represent, and to millions of nonunion workers.” His success might well boost unionization efforts elsewhere. (In a written statement after the ratification, President Biden noted, “These contracts show that when unions do well, it lifts all workers. Following the UAW’s historic agreements, we’ve seen Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Subaru announce significant wage increases as well.”)
Sure enough, “Workers at two Wells Fargo bank branches launched unionization efforts Monday, shifting the attention of the resurgent labor movement to an industry that has historically been cool to it,” the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Bank workers have not successfully organized in decades. But it’s a whole new era. “Labor organizers and unions have scored big victories lately. Amazon warehouse workers voted to unionize in New York last year, and hundreds of Starbucks shops have done the same.” (The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, is Amazon’s founder.) And, of course, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild have also won lucrative deals, taking into account new media and the perils of artificial intelligence.
Just a few years ago, unions appeared moribund and irrelevant to workers’ economic futures. Not so any longer. Credit goes to many union organizers, workers and leaders — with Fain providing the exclamation point on a period in which unions again are equalizing the bargaining power between employees and business and, perhaps, slowing the surge in income inequality.
Amid turmoil, angst and anxiety, the arts still provide inspiration and joy. The National Symphony Orchestra is a jewel, often overshadowed by its counterparts in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland. Nevertheless, its technical excellence and musicality, and more inventive programming in recent years, make it one of the country’s great orchestras.
A case in point: Ken-David Masur, son of the legendary Kurt Masur, was called in as a substitute conductor last week for the ailing Michael Tilson Thomas. Beginning with a jaunty performance of Overture to Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito,” Masur then led the orchestra and piano soloist Orion Weiss in Mozart’s Concerto No. 23. In particular, the third movement showcased near-perfect balance and synchronization between piano and orchestra, earning a well-deserved ovation. Weiss showed off his virtuosity and subtly in a lovely Debussy encore.
But for sheer joy and excitement, nothing topped the second half of the program, Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, the “Scottish.” With a stirring final movement featuring magnificent woodwinds and horns, Masur again brought the audience to its feet. Throughout the evening, he evidenced total command and boundless joy, wearing a broad smile during particularly stirring moments.
The evening was a blessed reminder that even (especially!) in stressful and disturbing times, music can restore your spirit and lift your soul.
Every Wednesday at noon, I host a live Q&A with readers. Read a transcript of this week’s Q&A, or submit a question for the next one.
Guest: Trump is a fascist. Why don’t you and your colleagues start calling him that? The evidence shows that former president Donald Trump sides with dictators, uses fascist language and plans to take retribution over his perceived enemies. Why are you and your colleagues soft-pedaling here with your language?
Jennifer Rubin: I use the phrase regularly. Unfortunately, too many journalists don’t see Trump and his movement in the context of history, failing to recognize this is reflective of movements ranging from Europe in the 1930s to Chile in the 1970s. Fortunately, a few outlets recognized his “vermin” comments as straight from Hitler’s playbook. Now, they need to remind people of his unabashed identification with fascist language and policies (e.g., keeping our blood “pure”).
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