The father of an Israeli hostage taken by Hamas is blaming former first lady Michelle Obama for allegedly being silent on the matter.
Nineteen-year-old Israel Defense Force soldier Naama Levy was taken from the Oz army base by Hamas during its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, where more than 240 hostages were taken and at least 1,200 were killed in their homes in several small towns, kibbutzim and at the SuperNova Music Festival in the Negev Desert.
According to The New York Post, Levy’s father, 52-year-old Yony Levy, is blaming Obama for not speaking out for the return of the female hostages taken. Obama is a founder of The Girls Opportunity Alliance — a group committed to empowering adolescent girls worldwide through education — and recently traveled to Malawi and southern Africa with Amal Clooney and Melinda Gates to work on ending child marriage globally.
Obama also led the campaign “BringBackOurGirls” after at least 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram in 2014. Levy says his daughter idolizes Obama, but he is “disappointed” and questioned why the “Becoming” author and others have “stayed silent.”
“What I want to know, why has she, and all these other famous women Naama looked up to, and all of the global human rights organizations she believed in, stayed silent about what has happened to my Naama and all the other girls who have still held hostage? It is like they have disappeared,” said Levy. “Their silence shouts loudly. Naama believed in the power of women helping each other. She believed in the power of women. I am disappointed for her.”
Naama Levy volunteered for a global peace organization that brought Arab, Jewish and American people together while also volunteering at a kindergarten in Israel that helped Ethiopian immigrants, her father says. Disturbing video of a bloody Levy wearing pajamas while being violently taken hostage circulated on social media following the attack, but her father says he hasn’t been able to look at the footage.
“We talked about Michelle Obama often,” he said to the Post, a conservative Rupert Murdoch-controlled outlet that frequently is critical of the Obamas and Democrats in general. “She believed her to be someone who not only cared about global women but also someone with a really good heart.”
More than 100 hostages have been released so far, including three white flag-waving Israelis who were shot to death by Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza before they could be repatriated. Israel began bombing Gaza following the Oct. 7 terror attack and has so far killed at least 20,000 people, including civilians.
The former first lady did offer comments about the Oct. 7 attacks shortly afterward while attending an event in New York City, according to The Messenger.
“I’m like all Americans watching the images coming out of the region,” she said. “I can say that, as a mother, I cannot wrap my arms around how people must be feeling. I can’t get the images of those young people who were gunned down attending a music festival because those kids were the age of my daughters.”
After noting that words couldn’t be helpful with such trauma, Obama added, “What I think about and what I pray for is that seeing those images gives people strength rather than hardens their hearts, because when our hearts get hardened because of those kinds of acts, then we lose sight, and we lose our resolve for peace, and that’s something that we cannot do.”
While Mrs. Obama didn’t directly mention releasing the hostages, her husband and former President Barack Obama did. The 44th U.S. president prayed for “the safe return of those who’ve been held hostage” in a post on X, formally Twitter, two days after the attack.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Gwyneth Paltrow and other women prominent in the #metoo movement were called out as well for being “largely silent” after reports surfaced of Israeli women being raped by Hamas terrorists during the attack.
