The NY Post Says What We’re All Thinking: Where Are Women’s Groups on Hamas Rapes?

“The deafening, disgusting silence of women’s groups on Hamas rapes continues,” fumed Mark Penn and Andrew Stein for the NYP yesterday.

“The deafening, disgusting silence of women’s groups on Hamas rapes continues,” seethed Mark Penn and Andrew Stein for the New York Post on January 9, 2024.

“The silence from so-called women’s groups on the atrocities committed against women in Israel Oct. 7 is deafening,” began the duo. “Three months later, few if any have given a full-throated condemnation of what Hamas did despite the clear evidence its shocking crimes were deliberate and widespread.”

Mark Penn, a former longtime advisor to the Clintons, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president, are both Democrats. And they aren’t the only ones demanding answers as to why women’s rights organizations like Emily’s List — and so many others — are so strangely silent on the subject of Hamas rapes.

“The silence from respected Western media outlets on the subject — as from the bastions of academia, international human rights organizations, and erstwhile #MeToo activists — is heartbreaking in its callousness and inhumanity,” we wrote in these very pages not long ago. “It is also deafening.”

The silence of women’s groups on Hamas rapes is particularly difficult to understand given the fact that many of the terrorists documented their crimes and uploaded the videos.

“Reporters for the major media also approached the issue with skepticism, though videos and photographs of victims showed bloody genitals and broken legs that were obvious signs of violent murder and rapes done in ghastly ways,” as Penn and Stein observed for the Post.

“One wonders why these publications and others took months to conclude what was obvious from the original accounts and the bodies, including women dragged through the streets,” they wrote. “These are the same publications that immediately issued false headlines about Israel bombing a hospital, killing 500, when it was in fact a rocket fired by Hamas allies that landed in a parking lot.”

“New York Times admits it relied ‘too heavily’ on Hamas claims in initial report on Gaza hospital explosion,” reported Brian Flood for Fox News on October 23, 2023. “‘Times editors should have taken more care with the initial presentation,’ the paper admitted.”

The New York Times is the same paper that recently published a controversial opinion piece purported to have been written by the Mayor of Gaza complaining about, what else, Israel’s response since the October 7th attack — though not the terrorist attack itself.

When it comes to accusations of sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women by the forces of Hamas on October 7, however — many instances of which were filmed by the terrorists themselves— the Times obviously felt it necessary to do a thorough investigation of the accusations.

Very thorough.

But even the extremely thorough New York Times report on “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence” published on December 28 hasn’t had much impact.

“The New York Times said Dec. 28 that its investigation showed ‘a pattern of rape, mutilation, and extreme brutality,’ ‘establishing that the attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence,’” Penn and Stein reminded readers of the Post. “The Wall Street Journal’s reporters similarly investigated and concluded Dec. 31 that rape was a part of the Hamas battle plan.”

But instead of rallying to the cause of women’s rights everywhere, too many women’s rights groups have turned a callously blind eye.

“Yes, some individuals and extreme-left organizations have denied these atrocities or upheld them as justified resistance,” admitted Judith Levine for The Intercept on December 24, 2023, in “There Was No Cover-Up of Hamas’s Sexual Violence on October 7: The right manufactured it, the media and feminists bought in — and Israel is exploiting the outcry.”

“But it is not U.N. Women’s role to make day-after condemnations of unverified acts of violence against women, and verifying such acts, particularly amid the chaos of war, takes a long time,” wrote Levine.

The frustration of Penn and Stein — and so many others is understandable given “progressive” hot-takes like these.

From #BelieveWomen to “unverified acts of violence against women, and verifying such acts, particularly amid the chaos of war, takes a long time,” is a shocking fall from grace.

And “Mainstream media, which had grown correctly cautious after repeating unconfirmed reports about who bombed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City in mid-October,” in the opinion of Levine — and so many others — was correct to be skeptical of Hamas rapes.

While some prominent female progressives — like Sheryl Sandberg and Hillary Clinton — continue to speak out for the victims of Hamas, the silence — or moral ambiguity — of other progressives is difficult to understand.

“There is no legitimacy to a movement that could sanction such crimes,” as Mark Penn and Andrew Stein concluded simply.

For the New York Post yesterday, the duo said what we’re all thinking.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)