The Times of Israel is reporting that David Keyes, a foreign media spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is being accused of sexual misconduct by a dozen women. The allegations range from aggressive creepiness to forced sex. The story is rooted in an article that The Daily Caller published about the experience of Julia Salazar, who is currently running to be a State Senator in New York.
In 2016, Salazar posted a Facebook page describing being sexually assaulted by an unnamed man. She quickly deleted the post, although it did lead to news reports about the incident that didn’t name her. The Daily Caller’s recent report, however, named both Salazar and Keyes. Following that, Wall Street Journal reporter Shayndi Raice tweeted about her own encounter with Keyes, whom she describes as “a predator.”
The man had absolutely no conception of the word “no.” No matter how often I said no, he would not stop pushing himself on me. I was able to extricate myself quickly and it was a very brief and uncomfortable moment but I knew as I walked away I had encountered a predator.
— Shayndi Raice (@Shayndi) September 11, 2018
Aside from Salazar and Raice, the other ten women are anonymous. The stories they tell, including another account of assault, are disturbing. “It was a physical effort to get out of his embrace,” One woman told the Times of Israel. “He kept trying, he kept going even after I said no.”
According to The Times of Israel, when Salazar’s Facebook post came out in 2016, “The Prime Minister’s Office at the time denied the charges on Keyes’s behalf, with sources telling reporters about Salazar’s past engagement with leftist groups in an apparent effort to diminish her credibility.” Because of this defense of Keyes, the scandal goes beyond him and also implicates Netanyahu’s office.
Keyes denies the accusations. “All of the accusations are deeply misleading and many of them are categorically false,” he told The Times of Israel.