StepfordMum

I really can’t stand victim-blaming darvo.

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

Deactivated my main account because I couldn’t take the viciousness, misinformation and rage-farming, and the overwhelming sense of betrayal from erstwhile online friends & allies.

But I’m back on this second account, because I need to connect with people who feel as I do.

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[Lior 🪬 @ChaiLife613]

In Auschwitz, my mother taught me three rules.

Not stories. Not prayers. Rules. The kind that kept you alive.

Rule one: Never make eye contact with a guard.
Rule two: Never show that you are sick.
Rule three: Never, ever, lose your bowl.

I was five years old. I memorized them the way other children memorize nursery rhymes.

The bowl was a small tin thing. Dented. Scratched. It held whatever thin soup they gave us once a day. If you lost your bowl, you had no bowl. If you had no bowl, you had no ration. If you had no ration, you understand.

I guarded that bowl with everything I had. I slept with it. I held it against my chest during roll call. I knew where it was every second of every day.

Then one morning, I fell into the latrine.

There is no delicate way to say this. The latrines in Auschwitz were wooden boards with holes cut into them over a pit. The holes were large. I was very small. I was in a hurry. I slipped.

I went in up to my neck.

The smell. The cold. The rats. I do not need to describe it. Your mind already knows.

My mother tried to pull me out. She could not. I was slippery and she had no strength. None of us had strength. We had not eaten properly in months. She called out. Other women came. Together they pulled me free. Someone found a hose. They sprayed me down in the cold air while I stood there shaking.

I did not cry. Rule number one in Auschwitz was the same rule everywhere, do not attract attention.

But I got sick. Very sick. The kind of sick that comes from rats and filth and cold water and a body that has nothing left to fight with.

And I remembered Rule Two, never show that you are sick.

I hid it from everyone. From the guards. From the other children. Even from my mother, because I knew if she knew, she would do something. And doing something in Auschwitz got you killed.

But someone saw. I do not know who. I do not know why they helped me instead of reporting me. I never knew.

They took me to a room, a makeshift hospital. I lay in a bed, a real bed, not a wooden bunk, for the first time since we had arrived.

I do not remember much of what happened next. The fever blurred everything. Days passed like smoke.

When I came out, I still had my bowl.

I had held it even in the latrine. Even in the fever. Even in the dark when I did not know where I was or what day it was.

My mother looked at me when I came back. She looked at the bowl. She did not say anything. She just nodded, the way she nodded when something had gone the way it needed to go.

People ask me what survival looks like.

I tell them, sometimes it looks like a five year old girl climbing out of a latrine in a death camp, covered in filth, shaking with cold, still holding her tin bowl.

Because she knew that the bowl was the difference between eating and not eating. Between living and not.

Because her mother had told her. And she had listened.

I am Tova Friedman. I fell into a latrine in Auschwitz at five years old.

I came out still holding my bowl.

Tova.

#NeverForget #Survival #DaughterOfAuschwitz #ShesStillHere #TheirNamesLiveOn

[Fania Oz-Salzberger 🇮🇱🕊️🟣 פניה עוז-זלצברגר @faniaoz]

Steve Villano:
“My Judaism, like Rabin’s, is one that believes in diversity, equality, inclusion, humanity and love, and a sacred obligation to repair the world.
My Zionism, like David Ben Gurion’s, Theodore Herzl’s, Amos Oz’, Susie Isser’s, and Yitzak Rabin’s is a Humanist Zionism, in which a State of Jews could only be a liberal democracy, NOT an exclusionary Nationalist Zionism.”
As Fania Oz Salberger has so eloquently said:
“Ben Gurion, the child of Socialist Zionists and of old Labour, and Theodore Herzl, a liberal, BOTH believed that Arabs AND Jews had to be part of Civil Society.”
That was the fundamental premise upon which Israel was founded.”
https://t.co/4wAesJy5YV

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

This is a long post but I do ask that you read it. I woke up to a tonne of abuse from Irish Twitter over my comment, as an academic, on Nick Kristof invoking academic literature in his NYT piece to imply precedent for his opinion piece. The literature, as a statement of fact, does not provide it.

I will reiterate again that there is no more vicious and bad faith cohort on this site than the Paddystinians, who have (sexually) harassed, defamed, and threatened me ever since I started expressing my opinions on this site. Ironically, they also are the reason I have a platform. I don’t know why they don’t see that and just stop talking about me. Every single time they descend to abuse me I gain hundreds of followers. The vast majority of people internationally recognise that they are completely deranged. My calmness in the face of their abuse is, in large, what has made me relevant.

These Paddystinians have vociferously denied and dismissed the rape of women on October 7th and the rape of Israeli hostages subsequently. The day after Nick’s opinion piece the most comprehensive report detailing this was released. I have not been able to comment on it because it actually made me physically sick, perhaps the most depraved being that family members in captivity were forced by Hamas to commit sexual acts on one another. An incomprehensibly sadistic destruction of the family unit.

This is what most of the Irish Left has ignored. This is what too many of the Irish Left has denied. This is what too many of the Irish Left has justified and rationalised.

When Nick’s piece came out initially, I did not comment on it. I saw the flaws others noted, specifically the reliance on Euro-Med, but did not comment because I do believe that abuse and sexual abuse is occurring in Israeli detention (and also because the beastiality subject matter is grotesque). Nonetheless, as a former fan of Kristof, I simply was dumbfounded, as an academic, that a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner would misrepresent academic literature in his recent Q and A after being clearly told that the literature does not provide the precedent he is implying for dog rape.

I didn’t comment on Euro-Med or his other sources. I stuck to what I know and can with authority speak on: academic literature. One consults the academic literature in order to establish precedent, and Nick has invoked it to imply that precedent for the phenomenon described in his piece exists. It doesn’t.

In order for me to explain that the precedent doesn’t exist, I have had to outline clearly the grotesque details as to why: the medical literature focuses on zoophelia whereby a sexually perverted human being forced a dog to penetrate them, not dog rape as Nick’s opinion outlines. These are very distinct things.

Now, because I have had to go into such detail in order to explain this, Irish Twitter has descended with all manner of abuse, much of which is a projection of what they themselves are guilty of: rape denial.

I will never forgive Kristof, a former hero of mine, for doing this. He has profoundly let down the victims of other accounts of sexual violence in Israeli detention by unfathomably standing by this one extraordinary testimony of dog rape. They have now all been drawn into disrepute. He has also forced us to learn about things we never wished to, and given antisemites the fodder to harass and demean us on a most vile subject matter imaginable. If we question the veracity of this claim on the basis of evidence, anatomical reality, and the medical literature, suddenly we are condoning or defending this behaviour.

Nick is a two-time Pulitzer winner who has misrepresented medical literature to imply precedent for the dog rape testimony in a piece in the New York Times. It is legitimate, and a statement of basic fact, to correct this and question how on earth this is happening and what it says about the state of journalism and the standards in one of the most renowned papers in the world.

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

What a brilliant brave woman Rachel is!
The more they try to silence her, the louder she shouts.
🔥🔥🔥

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

I really want my Irish critics to take on board what I am saying here about the complete backfiring of their abuse. You thought you could intimidate me into silence, but you completely underestimated both the sincerity and strength of my convictions.

You made me. You took a random PhD candidate with a few hundred followers and, through your mob like deranged abuse, garnered my page attention that it never would have otherwise gained. Attention that I never asked for or sought. You now conspiratorially and falsely claim that I am a ‘Mossad plant’ (laughable), that I am paid (I have a job and beyond published articles am not paid a cent for my commentary), that I am grifter (I have turned down numerous opportunities).

But it was you. You gave me my platform and you continue to make it grow. After over two years you still have not learned. Your best bet is to completely ignore me. Let me go back into irrelevance, something that I myself would not mind and have no problem returning to.

This is my secret, by the way. I have the freedom to say what I truly believe on this site: I am not beholden to audience capture because I truly don’t mind if it goes away; I criticise media institutions with abandon because I simply don’t care if they never want to platform me; I am not restrained in what I write because no one is paying me to do so.

[Amir Tibon אמיר תיבון @amirtibon]

This is not a settlement, it's a community within the internationally recognized borders of Israel. Out of the 450 people in this community, 16 were murdered on Oct7, another 8 were kidnapped into Gaza, and everyone lost their homes. Before Oct7, people in this community regularly volunteered to drive Palestinian cancer and diabetes patients from Gaza to Israeli hospitals. 85% of the residents voted against the Netanyahu government in the last Israeli election. You can read and educate yourself instead of posting embarrassing stuff like this.
https://t.co/7gfohnlxKS

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

@spiralofpurity @janeclarejones @radfem_witch Militant Islamism *is racist* against Jewish people.
It openly seeks the genocide of the Jewish race and the destruction of their only homeland.

Why (eg) are feminist charities platforming supporters of Hamas?
Why doesn’t feminism sort out the racism within its own ranks?

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

@demonista @spiralofpurity @janeclarejones @radfem_witch For example, these feminists - who were platformed at @FiLiA_charity 2025 feminist conference.

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

@spiralofpurity @janeclarejones @radfem_witch Spot on 🎯

Far-right politics are incompatible with feminism.
Hence, as left-wing feminists, we call out our sisters for marching with Tommy Robinson.

Militant Islam is also incompatible with feminism.
So why don’t we call out our sisters for marching with militant Islamists?

[Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets]

Highest growth in G7, 6 interest rate cuts, inflation down, more police on the front line, NHS waiting lists dropping, net migration lowest since 2012, highest military investment since the Cold War, new cost of living summer package for families.

All that (and much more) despite inheriting a mess and challenging global events.

Lots done, lots to do. 2 years into a 5 year term.. and we need stability to deliver more - faster - not change.
Country first 🇬🇧

[Karen Pollock 🎗️ @KarenPollock100]

This is a devastating and essential read from @geochesterton @telegraph

Heartbreaking and familiar.

The world has been completely upended for my Jewish daughters https://t.co/SZ44WRA2HB

[Avi Bitterman, MD @AviBittMD]

Hi @NickKristof, I don't understand why you are misrepresenting the medical literature on this topic. No cases of canine rape have ever been confirmed in the medical literature, and the very few cases of rectal injuries that are described are documented as being initiated by sexual/curious zoophilia on the part of the human, not an assault on an unwitting human on the part of the dog.

Moreover those very same medical journals specifically state what you are claiming as "never been described, nor is such a such a thing likely".

Finally, none of this deranged nonsense was needed to bring light the other cases in your article. Why tarnish your article with pseudoscience, with a a citation to a twitter post by a deranged drunkard (who himself ironically engaged in sexual misconduct) no less? I really don't get it.

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

As a simple matter of fact, the specific assertion highlighted is wilfully misleading.

Niklas very cleverly says the medical literature ‘documents rectal injuries’. Note that he does not say ‘documents dog rape’. That is because there is no such occurrence in the literature, it is completely without precedent in this regard.

As @AviBittMD wrote (full comment linked below):

‘No cases of canine rape have ever been confirmed in the medical literature, and the very few cases of rectal injuries that are described are documented as being initiated by sexual/curious zoophilia on the part of the human, not an assault on an unwitting human on the part of the dog. Moreover those very same medical journals specifically state what you are claiming as “never been described, nor is such a such a thing likely”.’

There were credible testimonies in the Kristof piece. However, the Sagan standard was obviously - obviously - required on claims of dog rape and it was not provided in the piece.

I am honestly dumbfounded that Nick and the New York Times have gambled their credibility as a journalist and paper respectively by insisting on publishing and standing behind the dog penetration aspects of the piece. Worse, they are now wilfully misrepresenting the medical literature on the subject.

This is a total collapse of journalistic and editorial standards that, aside from anything else, has left the credible testimonies - ones that deserve to see the light of day - in the dust.

[Sonia Sodha @soniasodha]

Hi Emily, it’s the Equality Act that says single sex services can’t admit people of the opposite sex. The Code of Practice simply explains it to service providers. If you want services organised on the basis of gender identity not sex you need to advocate for a change in the law. There’d be a lot of opposition to that (including from me) because of the impact on women, including domestic abuse survivors. Happy to put you in touch with a specialist lawyer if you want to know more about the relationship between the law and guidance.

[Rebecca Trenner @trenner_rebecca]

I’m a bit in love with Nemes. This shouldn’t be rare bravery. He shouldn’t sound like a lone voice of truth.

https://t.co/vRXqaaSbtK

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

Where was your anger @RobCarryBray? Where was your revulsion?

Is there a more ‘shameful treatment of our people’ than the murder and kidnap of our own girls? What reason can you give for your moral inconsistency in this regard?

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

#NewProfilePic

[Nicole Lampert @nicolelampert]

I’ve been to the Nova site three times: watched it go from a small collection of stones to a lasting memorial to the 378 mostly young people of all ethnicities killed there.
But I still think going to the Nova exhibition in London, which started this week, is important.
It’s reminder of why this war, which has come to dominate the lives of Jews around the world and - incredibly - shaken up our entire political system, started.
It’s a reminder of the sheer brutality of the invasion of October 7, led by Hamas, and why Israel had no choice but to wage a war to stop it ever happening again.
The exhibition is the closest any of us will come to understand the horror of that attack and how the terrorists ruthlessly targeted everyone they could: a reminder they weren’t fighting an army but hundreds of unarmed young people.
The ‘feminists’ who claim they won’t speak of the rapes perpetuated on that awful day because its ’propaganda which is an excuse to kill Palestinians’ should go to this exhibition.
They won’t because if they did would be forced to confront a reality they deny: the frenzy of killing seen at Nova (just one of the sites Hamas attacked) means Israel had no choice but to try and destroy Hamas.
While the war is over - with a shaky ceasefire - it’s not over. The heavy police presence outside the venue shows a new normal for Jewish communities around the world.
As I write, there’s a new missile attack on Israel.
And for the Palestinians inside Gaza, stuck living in tent villages, hemmed into a much smaller area, mourning the tens of thousands dead as a result of October 7, the future remains uncertain as Hamas once again attempts to regroup and plan their next attack.

[StepfordMum @StepfordM]

@christianjbdev Thank you for sharing. A very upsetting and frightening read, but better to know what’s happening.

[Christian JB @christianjbdev]

David Frum on Kristof’s NYT piece.

https://t.co/k4bAAiRyXj

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

Performative activism, meet performative justice.

Ben Gvir just handed the flotilla exactly what they came for. A clip of a cruel Israeli minister to wave around.

It doesn’t matter that they broke a naval blockade after repeated warnings. It doesn’t matter that Israel offered to deliver the symbolic “aid” on board to Gazans itself.

The IDF did incredible job to stop them without provocations and arrange for their departure. But then Ben Gvir came along, the guy who didn’t serve a day in the army.

Most people will only see this clip of a minister delighting in use of force and humiliation on camera.

Ben Gvir and the flotilla deserve each other. Both perform justice. Both peddle hate.

But neither Israelis nor Palestinians deserve either.