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Cheryl Levi

Where are you, Michelle Obama?

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In a 2017 poll, 47% of Americans believed Michelle Obama to be the face of feminism, and for good reason. As first lady and then former first lady, Michelle has become a fierce spokesperson for women’s causes. On NBC in 2018, when asked about the MeToo movement she explained that “The world is sadly a dangerous place for women.” She talked about paving a new path for the next generation, and she made a commitment to do so. Michelle Obama has become a type of moral compass for the world, especially in relation to issues relating to women.  This is why after the October 7th massacre, I am forced to ask myself, where is Michelle Obama?

A recent video put out by Sheryl Sandberg depicts the monstrosities that women underwent on October 7th.  It was one of the first times the unspeakable has become speakable.  Women were ravaged, forced to perform sexual acts, gang-raped, tortured, burned alive, and dismembered.  And it wasn’t just women, it was young men and teenage girls as well.  Witnesses have a difficult time discussing what they saw and heard but force themselves to do so because they know these acts are being denied.  “Liars” people are yelling at family members of the victims.  The truth doesn’t fit the skewed personal narratives of the uneducated followers of Hamas who are protesting in the streets around the world.  And so, victims and witnesses have begun to emerge from their own personal pain to tell the truth.

In 2018, Michelle Obama begged girls to “be supportive of each other”.  She claimed that we can all win if we fight together. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vovsueLkZYg) So where is her support for the female victims of October 7th?  Can you imagine the sympathy these victims can gain from the backing of powerful women like Michelle whose memoir made $65 million and was translated into 28 different languages?

Days after October 7th, house representative Derrick Van Orden, a former Navy Seal and combat medic visited Israel to see the debris.  He later remarked, “I can speak with authority.  I’ve done multiple combat tours.  People were slaughtered at a level not seen since the Holocaust.” (https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjqmutqv6)  In Sheryl Sandberg’s video, she speaks to members of Zaka, the religious organization that collects bodies and body parts after terrorist attacks and other disasters so that they can be buried.  One man shows her pictures of the dismembered body parts.  Arms, legs, and breasts are cut off and found meters away from the bodies.  Corpses are found crouched with their arms across their bodies in defensive postures.  Their bodies are charred.  This, he explains, shows that they were burned while still alive.  Sheryl shudders.  The viewers cry.  Is Michelle even watching?

On her podcast “Honestly”  Bari Weiss describes the horrors of October 7th.  She tries to understand why more people, especially feminists like Michelle Obama are not standing up for the victims.  She explains that an assault that lacks criticism of its perpetrator is not just an assault on the victim; “It is an assault on truth itself”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVXFXZ9xGA)  In a State Department briefing, spokesman Nathan Miller says, “It seems that one of the reasons they (Hamas) don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage…is that they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”  https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-official-hamas-not-freeing-women-hostages-so-they-wont-tell-what-happened-to-them/  Bari Weiss is correct.  The truth about what is happening to these hostages is being buried. What the world desperately needs right now is a moral compass.  So where is the woman who has become that moral compass?

There are not many powerful figures who are standing up for Israel and its victims in these last few months.  Cowards are afraid.  It takes courage to go against the flow.  But there are a few brave individuals.  Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State who served under the Obama administration is speaking out.  She calls the student protestors “woefully uninformed” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  At a conference in Munich, she stated “You have to ask yourself how you could have an event focused on using rape as a tactic against women and girls…and you include the most recent horrendous examples out of Israel, and that brings out protestors.  She points out that over 60% of young Americans between the ages of 18-29 believe that the Holocaust is a myth.  (https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-788087) She is working to fix that.  I have grown to respect the unique courage of Hillary Clinton and the few public figures who have come out to decry Hamas and its war crimes.  I have also grown to despise the moral cowardice of public figures like Michelle Obama.

One of the things Michelle is most famous for is the “#Bring our girls back” campaign.  In 2014 schoolgirls in Boko Haram Nigeria were kidnapped, and she decided that it was critical to bring that injustice to the public. She, among many other celebrities, was seen on social media holding up a sign on white paper that read, “#Bring our girls back”.  It was a popular campaign, and it did bring the issue to the forefront of public awareness.  One of the Israeli kidnapped girls, Naama Levi told her father that she believed Michelle Obama to be someone who not only cared about global women but was also someone with a good heart.  In a New York Post article, her father Yoni asks, “Why has she (Michelle Obama)…stayed silent about what happened to my Naama and all the other girls who are still held hostage?” (https://nypost.com/2023/12/15/news/hamas-hostage-naama-levys-father-shames-michelle-obama/

It’s a good question.  Where are you, Michelle Obama?

For someone who is so smart and so concerned about the fate of women in this world, you would think she would understand that silence is complicity.

About the Author
Cheryl Levi is a writer and a high school English teacher who lives with her family in Bet Shemesh, Israel. She has a master's degree in medieval Jewish philosophy and has written numerous articles about faith crisis in Judaism. Her book, Reasonable Doubts, was published in 2010.