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White House Adds Oct. 7 Rape Victims to Fact Sheet on War Zone Sexual Violence After Backlash From Jewish Dems
US Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on June 4, 2024. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The White House has added references to the rampant sexual assault perpetrated by Hamas terrorists during their Oct. 7 onslaught across southern Israel to a fact sheet it recently released on sexual violence in conflict zones following widespread outcry for making no mention of the Israeli rape victims.
The Biden administration updated the fact sheet to include references to Hamas, the Oct. 7 massacre, and the Palestinian terrorist group’s Israeli victims after Jewish Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff (CA) and Dan Goldman (NY) sent a letter to US President Joe Biden criticizing the omission.
On Wednesday, Schiff and Goldman sent a letter to Biden sharing their “deepest concern” that the Israeli girls and women raped and otherwise sexually brutalized by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists were not mentioned in the initial version of the fact sheet. The original version mentioned sexual assault victims in Ukraine, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Iraq, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria.
“Clearly missing from this list of victims are the women who experienced sexual violence on Oct. 7, 2023, as a result of the brutal attack by Hamas against Israel. There is substantial evidence that Hamas perpetrated sexual violence against Israeli women on that terrible day, as well as against the hostages they took in the ensuing days and weeks,” the letter read.
“Given the evidence of these horrific incidents, the brutal and vicious sexual violence committed by Hamas must not be omitted from the White House’s Fact Sheet,” the letter continued. “The administration and Congress must never lose sight of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israel or give Hamas special dispensation in seeking accountability for its actions.”
After receiving the letter from the Jewish lawmakers, the White House swiftly updated the fact sheet to include detailed references of the sexual violence committed against Israeli women on Oct. 7.
The new iteration of the fact sheet mentions the Oct. 7 sexual assaults in the first paragraph and outlines the various ways in which the administration has recognized them.
It also references a June 17 White House screening of “Screams Before Silence,” a documentary by former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg that examines the Oct. 7 rapes. US Vice President Kamala Harris hosted the screening with Amit Soussana, an Israeli woman who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 and endured sexual assault, in attendance.
The document also noted Biden’s previous acknowledgments of the rapes perpetrated against Israeli women. “President Biden has been clear when it comes to highlighting Hamas’ horrific acts of sexual violence on Oct. 7,” the document reads.
Mounting evidence has revealed that Hamas carried out systematic sexual violence against the Israeli people, including torture and mass gang-rape, during its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israeli, where the terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others. A recent United Nations report concluded that there is “clear and convincing information” of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israelis both on Oct. 7 and subsequently against those taken hostage into Gaza.
The New York Times also launched a two-month investigation into the sexual assault allegations and uncovered a “pattern of rape, mutilation, and extreme brutality” committed against Israeli women by Hamas.
The post White House Adds Oct. 7 Rape Victims to Fact Sheet on War Zone Sexual Violence After Backlash From Jewish Dems first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.