Mick Hartley

At Tablet Magazine, from Nicole Lampert and Zoe Strimpel:

“The feminists, the so-called feminists, are no longer concerned with the occupation of women’s bodies worldwide, but rather with the occupation of a country called Palestine, which has never existed. Every single area of feminism in America has been wrecked, ruined and is involved in boiler plate filth against Israel and the Jews.” This is how Phyllis Chesler, 85, the feminist psychotherapist, activist, author and long-time observer of global feminism, describes the current moment.

While Chesler remains warm and cheerful in her demeanor, her disgust with the state of the movement she has dedicated her life to, which is now imploding for the second time because of anti-Zionist antisemitism, is a solid mass. A good 40 years into the fight, and with 20 books under her belt, Chesler is now working on a major tome entitled The Complete and Utter Palestinianization of American Feminism.

Ha! Great title.

These days, the internal battles are almost surreal—especially since Hamas’ attack on October 7. The “Zionist” side “argues” that rape and torture should be taken seriously even if the victims are Israeli women, and even if the attackers and torturers are members of “the resistance.” Taking even this minimal position can be friendship-ending. The dominant bloc insists that “the Israeli genocide” is a feminist issue. The increasingly acrimonious rows have gone back and forth from small activist groups all the way up to Reem Alsalem, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, who in November wrote on X: “No Palestinian applauded rape in Gaza. No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7^th of October.” This was despite a report by her U.N. colleague Pramilla Patten which found that conflict-related sexual violence including rape and gang rape was committed on October 7, across multiple locations.

Younger feminists may wonder how this has all happened. But older feminists know only too well that no subject has fractured feminist movement more—not trans, not surrogacy, not prostitution, not porn—than that small democracy in the Middle East.…

Worth a read.