Elvis (yellow) Costello boycotts Israel, becomes “a silent partner in someone else’s mistake”
A very nice piece today from David Horovitz, editor of the Jerusalem Post, on rock legend Elvis Costello’s decision to boycott Israel.
Horovitz writes the article in the form of an open letter, and pretty much hits every right note on this the latest indictment of Europe’s long and inexorable slide into barbarism over Israel and the Jews. Costello’s decision to cancel a series of concerts in Israel was announced on his website thus:
“It is a matter of instinct and conscience. It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts.” [Meaning?]
“I have come to the following conclusions,” he says. ” One must at least consider any rational argument that comes before the appeal of more desperate means. Sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static and so an end to it. [Meaning?]
“I cannot imagine receiving another invitation to perform in Israel, which is a matter of regret but I can imagine a better time when I would not be writing this. With the hope for peace and understanding. Elvis Costello.”
Oh dear, oh dear. All of this can be summarised in a single paragraph: “I’m a coward who fears to stand up to the braying crowds calling for Israel’s isolation. I am incapable of independent thinking. I simply cannot deal with the moral and civilisational issues that the Israel-Palestine conflict throws up. I do not understand democracy. I do not understand terrorism. I have decided to take the easy and painless path of conformity rather than to stand up for what is right”.
Horivitz reminds us of the words of a song Costello wrote in 1983 saying that he has become “a silent partner in someone else’s mistake.”
“We expected more of you,” he continues, speaking to Costello directly. “We thought you were a man of integrity and good conscience. At the very least, we believed that you would want to find out for yourself. You say that it would have been “quite impossible to simply look the other way.”
That’s the last thing we would have wanted you to do. You needed to come, and to look – rigorously and thoroughly – not to let others sell you their skewed vision.
“You have capitulated to those who would deny Israel the capacity to convey its reality. You have joined forces with those who seek, most deliberately, to impose journalistic and academic and artistic boycotts on Israel because they know that routine interaction plays into Israel’s hands. They know that open communication punctures the lies and the distortions. They know that an honest narrative trumps their dishonest misrepresentations. They know that once you had visited, you would not be so easily fooled.”
And he concludes:
“Maybe, just maybe, you’ll read this and reconsider. As someone who has written so many such poignant songs, as someone who so plainly takes your songwriter’s and performer’s responsibilities so seriously, it’s the least you should do.
“My aim is true,” you sang, half a lifetime ago, beautifully, in quite another context. “My aim is true”? No, Elvis, not this time, it isn’t.”
Let’s hope Costello does read Horovitz’s piece, and let’s hope it makes him thoroughly ashamed.
Tags: Israel
May 21st, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I doubt he’ll be much missed.
He’s got a weird head that makes him look like a praying mantis; he always sings like he’s terminally constipated; and I’d always thought that singing with an American accent ceased being popular with the arrival of The Beatles.
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 am
Let me offer my own heartfelt gut feelings (imaginable that will be blocked as some other “gut-feeling reactions). I actually never heard of this jerk, but that’s irrelevant since I’m relatively ignorant about music issues. He is certainly an ageing “star” by now. The “funny” thing is that after having just read minutes ago the same Horovitz letter, sort of on the newspaper site, I was surprised that Robin is dealing with the problem as well. Well, “Elvis” who for me is a non-entity. It’s not even his boycott and all the ignorance, arrogance, presumable lies which are so deeply angering, but one other thing. Namely, the so-called boycott activists. Let’s make clear something. While I wouldn’t often use unnecessary hyperboles and mindless abusives, I am on the opinion that these people who instigate this campaign against Israel (and let’s nothide it, there’s a good measure of Jews, at least nominally among them) behave just the exact same way like their Arian counterparts in the late 20s Weimarian/1930s Hitlerian pre-Holocuast Germany. They are first and foremost poltical extremists who would want nothing more than the complete eradication of the state of Israel. These people are Nazis. I’m absolutely certain about this. Of course most don’t see this, but I do. As Horovitz pointed out they are not really “supporters” of the Palestinians. Otherwise they’ve have surely encouraged the artists to perform in the Palestinian territories as well beside Israel, like Cohen attempted to do at first. No, they couldn’t care less about them and their plight. These people are just what I termed them. The “Small” girl (literally…; with small-mind and conflicted pubescent hatred of her fellow Jews in montreal when she was 16 years old and fat, these things do not go away easily for them; and in turn create various totaly thoughtless incoherent balderdash) and of course many-many others. May they rot in hell forever where they belong!
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Just because someone is a good musician doesn’t make them immune from being a muddle-headed twit.
If Declan MacManus (alias ‘Elvis Costello’) has read David Horowitz’s editorial, he’d now be too embarrassed to visit. Oh well, that’s his loss.
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Meaning? He’s a pretentious ass.
And his best records, Almost Blue and Delivery Man were recorded in Nashville not Mecca, or Cairo or Gaza.
I think you guess what I’m driving at.
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Just try singing “Meantally Defective” in place of “Watching the Detectives”.
Doesn’t that feel good?
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
The thing is, this guy isn’t a good musician anyway. (His attempts at Renaissance song are bloody awful). But that’s not the point – his “rationale” is completely incoherent and impenetrable. I don’t even think it made sense to him. He has determined not to make a political statement – by making a political statement.
He’s a self-preserving coward. Sod him.
May 22nd, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Since Costello can hardly have been surprised by the opposition to his tour, he must have given in to fear.
Let’s see if his wife Canadian Diana Krall, cancels her tour of Israel.
http://www.elusivedisc.com/images/versxr018inset2.jpg (Just a picture, for prurient purposes only.)
For those reading for the articles, here’s the announcement:
http://www.touristisrael.com/diana-krall-israel-tel-aviv/1087/
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:47 am
I had never heard of this Elvis till the Guardian, of course, trumpeted his decision to avoid singing or whatever he does in Israel.
But it appears that the real story is that his tour was unable to energize enough Israelis who apparently had heard of him to fill the Caesaria amphitheater profitably, and therefore would have been canceled anyway. Rather than admit to his flagging popularity, he took a “tramp” (Hebrew for “free ride”) on the BDS wagon.
May 23rd, 2010 at 6:32 am
Having considered the apologia, the main criticism of Costello is that he has forsaken his principles. He has lost his backbone. On the one hand he is fully aware that if he goes to Israel he can say there what his concerns are without fear of offending. He could do his bit to help both sides by speaking at his concert to his audience to promote ways to stop the violence.
No. Instead he opts for the easy option. He’s concerned much more about his own image to fans, many of whom, he must believe, will withdraw their support if he showed any open support for those in Israel who like his music. Sadly, and like many others, he has made himself a victim.
@Gabor. You are correct to identify the mindset the boycotters are creating and many in total unawareness. This is how I believe (like you) the Nazis did manage to gain power by operating under similar conditions that such a mindset creates. The concerns of many today are that these recent developments are bound to have catastrophic consequences if not identified soon.
To illustrate the point I had a conversation with a friend who quite candidly told me:”I’m not anti-semitic, but I am anti-Israel.” I asked “What do you mean by anti-Israel? Have you ever been there?” The reply: “No I don’t have to go. I have read and seen enough to know.” End of conversation.
Another confused soul.
May 23rd, 2010 at 7:33 am
Costello is not an atypical muso really. They generally have their heads in the clouds, and have little if any inkling of ugly real world facts. Is he any different to Roger Waters, condemning Israel for building a security barrier to protect its citizens from being blown up by Palestinian terrorists? You can almost guess at Waters’s convoluted non-thinking here, namely – hey I’m against the wall because I did a famous album so titled that spoke out against the walls we build around our hearts that isolate man from man and man from his own heart, so therefore…
Pink Floyd remain probably the most popular Western band in Israel. Hey I like their music, but Waters is clueless, just like Costello.
What about Patti Smith who wrote a song pining for the Lebanese dead of the 2006 war, you know the ones Hezbollah used as human shields in a war they started. You will be waiting for the cows to come home before she pens a song entitled ‘Sderot’.
One shouldn’t single out musos of course, it is just that this is the frightening standard among much of the Western Left, the fact of a person’s profession is neither here nor there, it’s just that famous or semi-famous people are given attention viz a viz their political statements. I mean who is going to pay attention to what the man in the street says about Israel if he is a tradesman or engineer or accountant.
On that topic (of celebrities and anti-Semitism) I have noticed so many professional writers the world over are viciously anti-Semitic, and so many Jewish writers are utterly clueless. In fact the writers/authors (and I mean “serious” writers here, not the amateurs churning out potboilers) seem worse than the musos, but maybe they are just more vocal on this front.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:27 am
One trusts that those who booked to see him will be getting their money back and be able to spend it on concerts by the cornucopia of attractive young Israeli singers, who can be sampled on Youtube. Each one of them is the greatest demonstration to the world of Israel’s vibrancy and musical ability.