The historical mistake in the USA is happening under the radar. We will all suffer from it. Instead of taking to the streets and fighting for their right to defend their bodily rights, liberal feminist women in the United States are investing all their effort in the Palestinian struggle. The response to anti-Jewish demonstrations is clear: an increase in conservative forces that will further erode women’s rights. What happens in the USA will soon reach Israel as well.
Pro-Palestinian protests at George Washington University (Photo: Mostafa Bassim, Getty Images)
American pro-Palestinians are not satisfied now with just violent takeovers of university buildings, and it is already clear that behind their institutionalized and organized violence, there is a directed hand. Especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a demand was made to shut down Hillel institutions, a Jewish organization on campuses throughout the United States. The argument is that this is a struggle for Palestinian rights and not a purely anti-Semitic event the moment this demand arose.
As a feminist, I watch with eyes wide open the dramatic changes taking place in the United States.
Women are losing the right to their bodies, country by country. Access to contraception is denied to them in many countries, and restrictions on abortion are becoming outrageous. Instead of taking to the streets and fighting for their right to defend their bodily rights, liberal feminist women in the United States are investing all their effort in the Palestinian struggle. They are blindly devoted to the Hamas narrative, leading protests, mainly the young women among them. In fact, they are creating a counterproductive movement that will bring conservative forces to power in the United States, as a reaction to the violent protests in the name of “progressivism.”
I can really see the historical mistake unfolding before my eyes. These same women are creating the next feminist disaster. The response to the extreme progressive trend will manifest itself in the upcoming elections. Under the expected backlash, women’s rights may fall under the same umbrella of woke culture and over-progressivism. Gender equality is a basic right that women have been fighting for for over a century, and recent moves may set us back. Moves that affect women’s rights on one side of the world, especially in the world’s largest power, will affect women worldwide.
Shortly after the war, I met a regional conflict reporter. She told me that Israel was known as the only country in the world where sexual violence is not part of the customary practices of war in this region. To our horror, we found that Jewish and Israeli women joined the victims of Islamic fundamentalism in Syria, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Yet, the global feminist field and “feminist-activist” women chose to deny what happened, and still Gaza continues to kidnap our women and men. Ultimately, women in the United States will suffer the consequences after their progressive actions empower conservative forces, especially at such a crucial time close to the US elections.
Last week, a documentary by Sandberg called “Screams Before Silence” about the sexual crimes of Hamas terrorists since October 7 was released. When I flew to a UN conference in December, dealing with Hamas crimes publicly for the first time, I watched Cheryl Sandberg speak passionately about the harm to Jewish women. How important the voice of liberal, Jewish-Zionist feminists is right now. In the United States and around the world.
I believe you, under one condition: Where did women’s organizations disappear to?
On the same visit to New York, I also met young American Jewish students at Columbia University. Already in December, they told me they were expelled from various university organizations because they identified as Zionists. They closed their social networks because they faced ostracism from their peers. The necessary response was to establish “Builders of Columbia” to provide a voice for young feminist women who can be an alternative to the hate activism demonstrated, unfortunately, by young pro-Palestinians. They will be liberal feminist activists without shame in their Jewish or Zionist identity.
In my opinion, these days could determine the future of women in America. The clash could harm us all. It is better that they wake up soon, before it’s too late.”
