Elvis cancels shows in Israel , June/July '10

[rachelhasen]

Judge Holden:
"On a more personal note, your ignorant, drunken, racist, hate-filled poison needs to move on and find a new home."

Can you point to anything I said that was "ignorant, drunken, racist," or "hate-filled poison?"

Cause I find your "personal note" those things. And I could point to those things being said about Jews here.

It was cool to read on Google today, that Dennis Gabor was a Hungarian Jew who invented holography! There are maybe 13 million Jews in the world today. Such a small populational representation to have given the world so much! I was never taught anti-semitism, so it's very hard for me to understand it? I admire them greatly.

[Judge Holden]

Look, I think we should correspond privately but before we do, please list the anti-semitic comments made on this board. You say there are lots: refresh our memories.
PS Dennis Gabor?

[rachelhasen]

Judge Holden,

I already pointed to a post that called the Jews something to the effect of the scourge of the planet. I am not quoting it exactly, therefore no quotation marks. It is on page 4, and was the impetus for my original post. There is plenty more here that calls Jews liars, racists, terrorists, ... I do not need to point it out. All you have to do is read. It's not a long thread. Only five pages thus far.

Please Judge Holden, show me what I said that could be labeled the insults you hurled upon me? I have no desire to talk to anyone offline who would denigrate me for defending Israel.

Google search engine, daily, celebrates someone/somethign, usually on that person's birhday with an icon above their search line that you can click on for more information about that person/thing. I was referring to today's choice, Dennis Gabor, which almost seemed like a sign to me. But, in furthering my love for the Jewish people, I wondered how many Jews had actually won a Nobel prize? Well, not much to my surprise, they represent 2% of the world's population but have won 22% of all Nobel prizes ever given! That's simply amazing. What a people! There is no doubt in mind that peace can be made with such an enlightened people.

http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html

[Emotional Toothpaste]

Look, I'm not anti-semitic, or anti-palestinian, so forgive me when I say this . . .

I'd like to see both sides armed to the hilt with the most diabolical and advanced weaponry available (short nuclear of course - due to drifting fall-out), and equally divided these armaments between the two sides, and then drop leaflets on the whole damn area for 48 hrs suggesting that the peaceful folk get out now before all hell breaks loose . . . and let them have at it. I hate the whole fucking region and their hatred toward one another, they deserve it ALL.

Good for Elvis!

[Ypsilanti]

Just chiming in here as a devout Atheist...

This thread is depressing, nauseating, ridiculous...

And it absolutely confirms that I've chosen the right path for myself, by which I mean no path at all.

Look, I'm no religious scholar--I'm just a person--but even a casual glance at history shows religion--all religion--to be an incredibly negative force in the world. For thousands of years, belief in a "loving God" has brought us rape, murder, greed, incest, war, hate, torture, terror, genocide, segregation, pedophilia, etc.

Even now in 2010, all over the world, people are willing--even eager-- to blow their neighbors and themselves to bits because their own set of religious fables is somehow more plausible than the other guy's fables. This slapstick-level stupidity would be hilarious if it weren't the saddest thing imaginable.

It's a shame people apparently can't evolve beyond the need for religion, even when there are clear alternatives like science and reason and rational thought.

[cwr]

Rachel,

I have friends who are Muslim. And I'm sure that they'd be pretty offended by the way you make blanket statements about Islam. And before you start spouting off about "OH but they're TRUE! Muhammad really DID marry a 6-year old! And also what bout THIS terrible thing done by Muslims?", let me just say that all sides can point to things throughout history that have been done by religions and religious people, and whether they're true or not, whether they're relevant to the present day or not, all sides spout those things with the same conviction that you spout your side of things.

People say terrible things about Jews all the time, and they say it with the same cocksure conviction that you spout off against Islam and say "I LOVE JEWS!", which by the way, I have to say is pretty damn condescending. I actually find your pro-Jewish rhetoric as offensive as your anti-Islam spiel. You talk about the Jewish people as if they are some adorable monolithic pet of yours. I think most of my Jewish friends would be put off by your "Aren't Jews just the BEST?" chatter, too.

For what it's worth, I'm a devout Agnostic. I don't care for organized religions, and I'm pretty put off by a lot of the behavior that takes place in the name of many of those religions. But I still find that it's better not to generalize too much about these things-- I find your "I LOVE JEWS, meanwhile Islam is a religion founded by a murderous pedophile" routine to be deliberately provocative, and I don't think it does one bit of good in this world. I don't think it makes ANYTHING one bit better, and it sort of contributes to the overall rot.

You signed up for this message board because you were mad that Elvis Costello cancelled concerts in Israel, and you hang around to basically say the same thing over and over again. And while you might feel it strongly in your heart, and of course, you have every right in the world to express it, I don't think the things you are saying are the least bit helpful. In fact, I'd say that if more people felt like you and expressed things the way you do, it would most certainly doom your cause. Because it's completely off-putting. Saying that your side is 100 percent right and the other side is made up of nothing but wrong has never been the road to anything good happening. And I'd say the same thing to anyone who was expressing the mirror of your view-- "I LOVE MUSLIMS! meanwhile here's all the things that Israel has done" would be just as offensive to me.

Plus, I know this kind of political back-and-forth is "on topic" in the sense that Elvis made news related to this, and so it's not like it's crazy that people would want to spout off about it, but there is a part of me that feels like the people who are lingering JUST to express their newfound displeasure with Elvis over and over again-- people like Rachel who signed up for this "blog" (as Rachel referred to it)-- are about as unwelcome as a person who signed onto a "let's debate the situation in the Middle East" message board and only wanted to talk about what a great song "Alison" is.

[Top balcony]

We've got an atheist / agnostic / atheist sandwich here 'cos I'm on message with Ypsilanti

I think the perfect way to close this down is with these wise words from Mr Nick Lowe:

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside
There's one thing I wanna know
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony

'Cause each time I feel it slippin' away, just makes me wanna cry
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding? Ohhhh
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

Colin Top Balcony

[Jack of All Parades]

Colin- dead on and nice segue back to EC thread!

In a similar vein I would offer the following to this babble[simplistic in tone but sometimes, more than often, simple is best]:

We Can Work It Out

Lennon/McCartney, 1965

Try to see it my way
Do I have to keep on talking till I can't go on
While you see it your way
Run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone

We can work it out
We can work it out

Think of what you're saying
You can get it wrong and still you think that it's all right
Think of what I'm saying
We can work it out and get it straight or say good night

We can work it out
We can work it out

Life is very short and there's no time
for fussing and fighting, my friend
I have always thought that it's a crime
So I will ask you once again

Try to see it my way
Only time will tell of I am right or I am wrong
While you see it your
There's a chance we might fall apart before too long

We can work it out
We can work it out

Life is very short and there's no time
for fussing and fighting, my friend
I have always thought that it's a crime
So I will ask you once again

Think of what you're saying
You can get it wrong and still you think that it's all right
Think of what I'm saying
We can work it out and get it straight or say good night

We can work it out
We can work it out

[sweetest punch]

The Pixies also cancel a show in Israël: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2010 ... srael.html

[rachelhasen]

Yes, I can see where my respect for the Jewish people was overkill. It was intended to be after all the horrible anti-semitism I read here. I happen to think, especially at this moment in time, they need someone on their side. Islamic nations call for the extermination of Jews daily! Where is the outrage?

And I'm well aware there are a majority of Muslims who would be offended by my pointing out the FACT that their "prophet" was a pedophile and murderous thug and perhaps that has something do with their respective cultures? As they have demostrated, not only would they be offended, but they would have the duty to murder for it, as we see them repeatedly do. And concessions to their irrationality and penchant to commit violence in the name of their god and prophet, such as Facebook removing/censoring the May 20 "Draw Mohamad Day," is an erosion of that greatest of Western institutions: free speech. Their irrational values should never be put above our traditions. Appeasement is cowardice and only provokes more demands and concessions.

Do we really agree that someone deserves to be murdered for drawing their prophet? One drawing I saw was simply a stick figure with the caption: "Once I say this is Mohamad, it magically becomes offensive."

Like many say here, I too could do without religion. I can especially do without Islam, whose violence in today's world is unparalleled.

But to bring it back to Elvis, my puzzlement remains: where was his conscience when it came to playing in Turkey, whose very violent and ongoing suppression of the Kurds and plethora of human rights violations should have provoked similar reaction? How come the Kurds can be gassed into permanent silence by Islamic nations and no one says a word?

I would also love to hear Elvis elucidate upon his statement that music is "often an us against them proposition."

[freedom]

Islamic nations call for the extermination of Jews daily! Where is the outrage?

And I'm well aware there are a majority of Muslims who would be offended by my pointing out the FACT that their "prophet" was a pedophile and murderous thug and perhaps that has something do with their respective cultures?

Do we really agree that someone deserves to be murdered for drawing their prophet?

I am glad Rachel is here. She is like fox news on truth serum. Fox news says the same things but in a much more intelligent and deceptive manner. I think Rachel is at least being honest about her bigotry with her rants about Islam and their "respective cultures".

I wonder why Rachel has not acknowledged or responded to my comments, as a Christian Palestinian. Maybe in her mind I do not exist? Is it possible she still believes the WWII era Zionist propaganda that "Palestine is a land without a people for a people without a land". Or the famous quote by Golda Mier...."The Palestinians do not exist".

Rachel talks about her delusional "Islamic nations (that) call for the extermination of Jews daily", but she does not mention that is was the Christian nations that actually exterminated Jews. Which is the very reason Zionists give for the need for a "Jewish Homeland".

Elvis has gone against the grain of the biased mainstream media and has made people stop and think. I thank him for that.

[Top balcony]

Christopher

Your comment "we can work it out" has already proven to be wildly optimistic.

......heart sinks.....

Colin Top Balcony

[jmm]

A trend???

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/arts/ ... ntemail0=y

More Musicians Cancel Shows In Israel
Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: June 7, 2010

A music promoter in Israel said that the country was being subjected to “cultural terrorism” as more artists canceled performances there, Agence France-Presse reported. Over the weekend the alternative-rock band the Pixies (right, Black Francis, the band’s lead singer) withdrew from what would have been its first show in Israel, as part of the Pic.Nic music festival scheduled in Tel Aviv this week. “We’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the fans, but events beyond all our control have conspired against us,” the group said in a statement. The bands Gorillaz and the Klaxons have also withdrawn from the festival after the raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Last month Elvis Costello canceled two concerts in Israel this summer, citing the complexities of the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After the announcement of the Pixies’ cancellation, Shuki Weiss, the promoter of the Pic.Nic festival, said in a statement, “I am full of both sorrow and pain in light of the fact that our repeated attempts to present quality acts and festivals in Israel have increasingly been falling victim to what I can only describe as a form of cultural terrorism which is targeting Israel and the arts worldwide.”

[jmm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world ... ntemail0=y


Artists’ Boycott Strikes a Dissonant Note Inside Israel
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: June 9, 2010

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Black Francis, the Pixies' lead singer, in Manhattan in 2009. The band is not playing in Israel.


The British rocker Elvis Costello canceled concerts scheduled for June 30 and July 1.
Some Israelis took the cancellation as an indication of the growing isolation they believe their government’s policies are leading to. For others, it served as proof of how deeply Israel is misunderstood.

Either way, the cancellation mobilized the Israeli pop world and its supporters against the threat of a widening cultural boycott, which many here view as a misguided policy and unfair punishment that the Israeli public does not deserve.

Benny Dudkevitch, a veteran Israel Radio editor and popular music historian, described the Pixies’ cancellation as “a slap in the face.”

“We have waited so long for them,” he added. “It hurts.”

The Pixies were scheduled to play on Wednesday night in Tel Aviv. They are the latest in a string of high-profile artists who have canceled performances in Israel this spring, including the British rocker Elvis Costello and the American rap poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron.

The announcement came with short notice, on Sunday, a week after the commando raid that turned violent and left nine activists from Turkey dead.

“The decision was not reached easily,” the band said in a statement. “We’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the fans, but events beyond all our control have conspired against us.”

Two lesser known bands billed to play at the same festival, the Klaxons and the Gorillaz Sound System, also dropped out.

A British band that did play at the festival, Placebo, subsequently faced boycott calls from activists in Lebanon who wanted the band’s Beirut concert, scheduled for Wednesday night, called off. The activists were particularly incensed over an interview the lead singer, Brian Molko, gave in Tel Aviv, in which he said that Israel had the group’s endorsement because he found the people “very attractive,” and that Israel’s endorsement was important “if you decide to go sailing.”

Shuki Weiss, one of Israel’s premier promoters and production managers, said he had been working to bring the Pixies to Israel for more than 10 years.

Music is a force that usually combats violence and hatred, he said. He calls the boycott movement “cultural terrorism.”

Like many here, Mr. Weiss argued that music and politics should not mix. “But if we do want to get into politics, I have a long list of countries that could be boycotted,” he said.

If the Pixies had something to say to Israel’s leaders, he and others noted, they could have come and said it here.

When Mr. Weiss brought Roger Waters to Israel in 2006, Mr. Waters performed in an Arab-Jewish village called the Oasis of Peace and sprayed graffiti on a section of the wall making up part of Israel’s security barrier near Bethlehem in the West Bank.

A loose coalition of pro-Palestinian activists around the globe has been lobbying artists not to come to Israel in recent years, inspired by the nongovernmental Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A small group of Israeli activists also wrote an open letter to the Pixies in March, saying that despite being huge fans, they would “not cross the international picket line.”

“Are you prepared to perform in Tel Aviv,” they wrote, “while just under your nose millions of human beings are suffocating under a cruel Israeli military regime, denying them elementary human rights?”

In April, pro-Palestinian activists picketed Mr. Scott-Heron’s concert at the London Royal Festival Hall and disrupted part of the performance. He then told the audience that he disliked wars and that his tour would “end in Athens, not Tel Aviv.”

Two weeks before Mr. Costello canceled his performances, scheduled for June 30 and July 1 at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Caesaria, he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that the people calling for a boycott “own the narrow view that thinks performing there must be about profit and endorsing the hawkish policy of the government. It’s like never appearing in the U.S. because you didn’t like Bush’s policies or boycotting England because of Margaret Thatcher,” he said.

Explaining his reversal in a letter on his Web site, Mr. Costello wrote that it was “a matter of instinct and conscience.”

“One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament,” he added. “Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.”

In what some saw as a bizarre confluence, around the same time in mid-May, the Israeli authorities refused to allow Noam Chomsky, the renowned linguist and harsh critic of Israel, to enter the West Bank from Jordan. An Israeli official explained that as “a mishap.”

The American guitarist Carlos Santana also canceled a June performance in Israel, but it was never clear whether it was for political reasons or because of problems with his schedule.

Surprisingly, given the cancellations, 2010 has been a bumper year in Israel for international acts. Joan Armatrading, Rihanna and Metallica have appeared in recent weeks; Elton John, Rod Stewart and Diana Krall, the jazz singer and pianist married to Mr. Costello, are still slated to perform.

For many here, though, such concerts were never just about the music. The more high-profile the artist, the more Israel felt like a normal country, less defined by conflict; each performance was taken as a sign of global acceptance that Israelis so crave.

Perhaps that is why the Pixies’ cancellation, while appearing to prompt little introspection, caused such an outpouring of indignation and distress.

The newspaper Yediot Aharonot devoted a full page of news and commentary to the unhappy event. One columnist, Raanan Shaked, sarcastically credited the Israeli government with “restoring our famous deterrence and preventing Weiss’s countless artists from trying to reach Israel’s shores.”

Another, Hanoch Daum, struck a more defiant tone.

“Life was pleasant enough without the Pixies, and it will continue to be so,” he wrote. Israelis have to stop “turning these concerts into a barometer of our national resilience,” he continued, adding: “You don’t want to come? As you wish. Don’t come.”

[nord]

I HATE people with palestinian scarfs. They were wrong in the 70´s and they are wrong now. They preferred dictatorship and socialism to freedom then. How could they be right now?

[A rope leash]

Ah, dear megaphoney rachel...

So, that map I posted represents the original territory of Judah? It was Jewish before it was Muslim, so Jews deserve it more? Why don't you just say it? "God" gave that land to the Jews, and we all better believe it!

...and it doesn't matter what we do or how we do it, just so long as we get the land "He" gave us!

You must be living in a paradise over there, huh?

O, you don't think all cultures are equal? Of course you don't! Why, your culture is better than any! "God" has chosen you!

O, those poor Muslim women. They're just dying to be in the land of the free where they can be a Western whore. Why, they protest almost everyday!

It isn't that all cultures are of equal standard in reality, it's that in the eyes of the Universe, (or "God", if you must) they are all equally valid. Just because one culture runs over another doesn't mean either culture deserves to rule.

...and, O my! I degrade women into body parts! All those Muslim women, they wish they were Western models so I could ogle them, too, huh?!

Hey, that was a very popular thread, and a nice change from the mundane around here. I spoke of beauty and lust. If you dont like it, maybe you should convert to Islam, eh?

Just once, rachel...I'd like to see a little sorrow and repentance from your country. There's nothing wrong with admitting you went too far, and apologizing. It's what good people do. If just once you would show a bit of humble regret and honest empathy, I might go easier on you, and Elvis might to...but, no...you appear to be bent on prepetual conflict.

So get on with it. America stands by you. What are you waiting for? Just smash them like you smashed Rachel Corrie.

(yeah, yeah, I'm an "anti-Semite". Stop making it so easy.)

[rachelhasen]

Nord,

More like totalitarianism. Last week in Iran, they ended the instruction of music in private schools. In Iran's "segregated" public schools, this was already a reality, as the Ministry of Education (Minied), determines the curricula for all schools, and music is, of course, unIslamic. Mind you, there were few private schools in Iran, and they were completely funded by student tuition, ... but ... bye bye Miss Iranian pie.

They also set aside millions of rials to assure that women do not use nail polish and dress according to Islamic dictate. In other words, no "western whore" clothes, I guess? Remember the pictures last year, around the time of Neda's murder, of the young women flashing peace signs with black and green nail polish on? Whores!!!

Around the beginning of the year, right before the Iranian theocracy closed down foreign email services in favor of government controlled email services, I had the surprising pleasure of talking to Aydin Aghdashloo, who told me he was " 'unfortunately' one of the most famous-if not the best!- artists in Iran." I loved him almost instantly for saying this! I had written him a note asking him about an Iranian painting I was trying to identify. I never thought in a million years, I would receive a reply! I had told him in my note, that I found his work "disturbing," ... that it made me wonder about him, that I too had the desire to know what is under the surface of things.

In that reply, the only reply I would receive from him, he said regarding his work "well, it is what it is and it says what is supposed to be said. sometimes they are disturbing, for i live in a disturbing situation and that is why i call them 'memories of destruction'."

You can see the collection on his web page, ... which is still up for viewing? The music too, is haunting.

http://www.aghdashloo.com/

[And No Coffee Table]

I had forgotten that the subject of playing Israel had come up in the Ask Elvis section of the official site in 2002. (Since it's from 2002, "my wife" means Cait.)

Q: Loveable Elvis! when will you come to Israel?! (It won't be considered as a political action!)well I wish I could write Engilsh as good as I listen to your's. with great love and peace we shall be blessed.(you make it all much easer to understand)
asked by Amitay on Wednesday, May 15

A: Thank you for your message. Unfortunately there are no plans to visit your country at this time. My wife was working in Eilat last year and loved being there. Maybe when peace comes we can visit.
answered by E.C. on Sunday, May 26 3:10 AM

[rachelhasen]

http://news.ph.msn.com/entertainment/ar ... id=4157216

Israelis welcome Elton John amid boycotts

Some 50,000 Israeli fans welcomed Elton John at a one-off concert Thursday amid relief the pop icon performed after a string of artists cancelled gigs in the Jewish state.

Israelis welcome Elton John amid boycotts
Israel faced a wave of recent cancellations after a deadly May 31 Israeli naval raid on a foreign aid flotilla that left nine activists dead.

Israel's Channel One television hailed John as a "single righteous artist in a sea of boycotters," after he arrived for the show.

Among those that have cancelled in the wake of the flotilla raid were US alternative rock group The Pixies along with London-based indie punk band Klaxons and Gorillaz, a hiphop project fronted by Blur's Damon Albarn.

That follows cancellations in recent months by high profile musicians, including Britain's Elvis Costello, rock guitarist Carlos Santana and rap forefather Gil Scott-Heron, after they came under pressure over Israel's policies towards the Palestinians.

[rachelhasen]

Elton John: No one could have stopped me from coming

British music star Elton John performs in front of tens of thousands of Israelis in Ramat Gan.
By City Mouse Online

Refusing to bow to the pressure of anti-Israel activists, Sir Elton John arrived in Israel on Thursday and performed in front of tens of thousands of Israelis at the Ramat Gan stadium.

John's arrival followed weeks of speculation due to several recent cancellations of concerts in Israel by other musical acts including Elvis Costello, the Pixies and Devendra Banhart for politically-related reasons.

The British music star, who last peformed in Israel in 1993, greeted the enthusiastic crowd by saying "Shalom" in Hebrew.

John said that no one could have stopped him from coming to perform in Israel.

"We're spreading peace and love on this stage and we're happy to be here," he said.

[Jack of All Parades]

This cannot be taken seriously, what a farce-this is a man who just performed at Rush Limbaugh's wedding-he has no credibility. He has no principles. They have gone out the door the minute he showed up at Rush's event.

[rachelhasen]

Oh my, there's more, Elton John also said:

"Musicians spread love and peace, and bring people together. That's what we do," he said. "We don't cherry-pick our conscience."

http://www.411mania.com/music/news/1427 ... 5C%5Ct.htm

I have great respect for Elton. That he would play with the homophobe M&N, or whatever the guy's name is, or for Rush Limbaugh, who is no worse than other polemics of either side, ... shows that Elton is respectful of all people, even those who write extremely homophobic lyrics, although M&whatever, has, in his newfound sobriety, backed down on gay bashing these days.

But, as many of you know, Elton and Elvis are friends, ... so I find the statement "We don't cherry-pick our conscience," ... interestsing.

One again, amazing that Elvis would play Turkey and not think twice about the violence being perpetrated against the Kurds, again, a population three times the size of Palestinians, nor Turkey's top-of-the-list status as a human right's violator, nor how easy it was for Turkey to pressure the U.S. House Speaker not to push legislation calling their "massacre" of over a million Armenians "genocide." Though Pelosi was trying to pass the resolution this year, long after Elvis played Turkey, who doesn't know about the Armenian genocide or Turkey's violent suppression of the PKK, or the extermination tactics used by other Islamic nations against Kurds?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... r=politics

The Palestinians, 90% of whom are said to be Hebrew, genetically, as statistics showing the presence of Jews in the area around the turn of the 19th century as a minority, were merely census taking by the Ottoman Empire who catagorized people according to professed religious affiliation. Most are ancestral Jews whose families had coverted to Christianity or Islam, by coersion, when these subsequent religions came into being. There are many articles on this, the genetic Jewishness of Palestinians. In fact, one of the most interesting genetic Jews I have come across is Amadinijab of Iran! While he has not taken a genetic test, nor could we ever ask him to do so, this report from the London Daily Telegraph says that he comes from a Jewish family!!! Oy!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -past.html

This was the kind of protest that Elton withstood. I think their use of "Sorry seems to be the hardest word," was especially crafty.

http://intifada-palestine.com/2010/05/dear-elton-john/

No Helen, I'm sorry, the Jews did not come from Germany or Poland! The Jews are from Judah, and you too Ms. Thomas may be, genetically, a Hebrew descendant!

[cwr]

It must feel nice always knowing you are 100 percent right and everyone who has a different point of view is 100 percent wrong. Must feel nice to live in a world where everything is that easy.

MUST. FEEL. NICE.

[rachelhasen]

No cwr. That is never the position I have tried to take. Never.

I would say, if anything, that I am taking Elton's stand, that you cannot cherry pick, that there is all sorts of injustice in the world, including in our own country.

I am saying that I am pro-Israel, but I have clearly said that that is the side I stand with. And I do believe that peace can be made with the Israelis, but not as long as Hamas' said objective is the destruction of Israel.

No one is ever 100% correct. I certainly don't proclaim to be, have never proclaimed to be. I will stand my ground though, especially when I feel that there is need for it, as I felt there was a need in this thread. I will voice my opinion.

And that being said, if Elvis can boycott, ... I will boycott Elvis. As much as it is his right to have political opinions and act on them, ... so it is my right. WE are lucky enough to live the free world.

I do hope he will seek redemption? In the Christian world, though there are no Christian theorcracies in this world, nor secular governments that call Christianity the "national" religion, in the Christian world, there is always redemption and forgiveness.

[nord]

MUST. FEEL. NICE
to believe that those terrorist are only some peaceloving freedomfighters who who wants to get all jews out of Israel.