That’s been the mantra of the Left for some years. It’s an extreme rendition of the obligation of folks—especially those with public influence—to speak and act against bad behavior, especially atrocities. It’s a mantra that was born in objections to the rise of, and increasing publicity surrounding, violence against women and children, increases (in publicity, at least) roughly coinciding with the time of the Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein exposures.
That brings me to 7 October 2023 and the terrorist Hamas attacks, of which rape of Israeli women and children, torture during and by rape of Israeli women and children, butchering of Israeli children were not byproducts of the heat of the moment but were deliberately used and specific tactics of the Hamas terrorists. There has been some outcry against those atrocities by major “women’s groups” that concern themselves with protecting women and children.
There also has been an ear-shattering silence from other organizations that make the same claims of concern for women and children. The Silent Ones include these:
- Planned Parenthood
- Women’s March
- EMILY’s List
- Democrat Women’s Caucus
- National Organization for Women
- Equality Now
- Time’s Up
- SOS Children’s Villages
- World Health Organization
- United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment
- N. Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
- International MeToo
The list goes on and is disgustingly long.
On 30 November, NOW did, badly belatedly, say that NOW condemns the use of rape as a weapon of war, but even with that, its statement was insultingly generic, with no mention of Hamas or Israel specifically. Coming as it does nearly two months after the atrocities, and only after mounting opprobrium, it’s not possible (for me, anyway) to believe NOW is uttering anything other than empty rhetoric in an attempt to cover its collective political behind.
Silence is violence is, by itself, an unprovable accusation. Silence, though, is a powerful indication of the antisemitic bigotry of these allegedly supportive but carefully silent organizations, and it is illustrative of the hypocrisy of these organizations that speak so loudly and zealously against crimes against women—or what they perceive as crimes against women—but are just as loudly and zealously silent when it comes to crimes against Jewish women and children.