Macy Gray Calls Israel "Disgusting," Israelis Criticized for Being Offended

January 24, 2011 at 10:00 am | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a comment
Tags: Anti-Semitism, Hollywood, Israel, Macy Gray, Max Blumenthal, NewsReal Blog, Right to Exist, The Concession Stand

by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog

Accusations of bigotry are far too common, and tend to be unsubstantiated. Playing the race card has proven an effective way to avoid arguing the merits of ideas.

That said, there is bigotry in the world, and it needs to be illuminated and condemned. One recent example comes from Max Blumenthal, described by NRB’s Matthew Vadum as “a soulless ultra-leftist propagandist who labors under the misapprehension that he is a journalist.” In a recent post on his website, Blumenthal condemns the Israeli response to an insult from singer Macy Gray.

The Israeli media is filled with reports about Macy Gray confirming her plans to perform in Tel Aviv in March. This should have been an occasion for Israelis to celebrate their continuing ability to behave as a normal society despite occupying millions of people, holding Gaza under siege, maintaining an apparatus of racism against its non-Jewish citizens. But in a poorly calculated stunt designed to wash her hands of human rights concerns, Gray had first asked her “fans” if she should perform despite what she called Israel’s “disgusting” treatment of the Palestinians. Within hours, thousands of people who had no prior interest in Gray or her music flocked to her Facebook page (they only had to “like” her page in order to post) to register their opinions. Gray, who appeared to have every intention of performing anyway, remarked after announcing her plan to go to Tel Aviv, that some of those urging her to boycott were “assholes(…)”

… However, her initial criticism of Israel’s occupation has invited a firestorm of racist, sexist and generally hateful diatribes from Israelis.

Read on at NewsReal Blog…