Jun 10, 2022·edited Jun 11, 2022Liked by Eve Barlow
Max is an Israeli? For me that pretty much sums up the warped mind of the typical progressive Jew in 2022. BDSing your own tiny country just to be accepted by the Non Jewish progressives. That is sick.
To be a jew is to be alone. I had to have a discussion with my daughter about her liberal friends’ views of Israel and the wider context. It is a lot of effort to explain our history against a lot of lies coming from the left. Takes a long time and many conversations. It makes us alone. We believe in equal rights but are not allowed to be included as a people deserving of them, even by those who are underserved or minorities. It makes me sad but resilient.
When I lived in Israel, the most popular band was called Kaveret, or beehive in English. One of the band members names was Alon Oleartchik. I’m guessing that’s his son.
Boycott or no boycott, I don’t care for their sound. It sounds like mediocre Crazy Horse. The lead singer looks like a photo mashup of Bono and Ray Davies.
Today’s culture, like in the days of the old Soviet bloc, produces coward after a coward. History will judge. And present day aesthetic judgment, will cringe from the verbal cliché.
When it comes to Brooklyn indy, I’ll stick with The Drums.
I am so impressed how powerfully and generously you use your gift for critique to express your admiration for the band’s talent (you didn’t have to link to their performance but you did, and I’m glad I listened), while also straight up calling them out over their xenophobic posturing. As for those who’ve cut you off, I’m tempted to just say “Their loss.” But your approach of offering both truths: your honest love and anger/hurt, without demonizing, is the best way to leave the door open for possible future reconciliations.
I am a conservative Israeli born Jew. I know some European non-Jewish truly good folks on the Left, Judeophiles. But they have a blind spot when it comes to the State of the Jews. The propaganda against Israel has been overwhelmingly successful. It feels hopeless, but as Dara Horne says in her book, People Love Dead Jews, what defines us is “resilience”, and you, Eve, are the personification. Am Israel Chai.
Your post and the band's memo stating their reasons for cancelling reminded me of the below excerpt from Matt Labash's substack post today. He was not referring to Israel and BDS, but it resonates:
Labash: "It all puts me in mind of that loather of euphemism and language corruption, George Orwell. I’ve quoted other parts of his seminal essay, “Politics and the English Language” here before. And since it’s one I try to return to at least a few times a year to keep my system clean, I’ll do so again, as it pins the tail on the fantasist jackalopes who keep inundating us with their politicized untruths:"
Orwell: "In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing……In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible…..The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer."
expertly written. of course! i admire that you don't hate them and that you do know who they are. I, on the other hand, now only know them for acquiescing to BDS and hating Jews. so...sadly, i never heard of them before and now i do hate them and wouldn't listen to them if it meant keep me from drowning.
Thank you for shining a light on this. It speaks volumes that the band capitulated to BDS pressures. I see so much Jew hatred in an Insta account called by Buddyhead. How can there be so many musicians drinking this xenophobic Kool-aid? Especially with an Israeli band member...wow.
Max is an Israeli? For me that pretty much sums up the warped mind of the typical progressive Jew in 2022. BDSing your own tiny country just to be accepted by the Non Jewish progressives. That is sick.
To be a jew is to be alone. I had to have a discussion with my daughter about her liberal friends’ views of Israel and the wider context. It is a lot of effort to explain our history against a lot of lies coming from the left. Takes a long time and many conversations. It makes us alone. We believe in equal rights but are not allowed to be included as a people deserving of them, even by those who are underserved or minorities. It makes me sad but resilient.
When I lived in Israel, the most popular band was called Kaveret, or beehive in English. One of the band members names was Alon Oleartchik. I’m guessing that’s his son.
Boycott or no boycott, I don’t care for their sound. It sounds like mediocre Crazy Horse. The lead singer looks like a photo mashup of Bono and Ray Davies.
Today’s culture, like in the days of the old Soviet bloc, produces coward after a coward. History will judge. And present day aesthetic judgment, will cringe from the verbal cliché.
When it comes to Brooklyn indy, I’ll stick with The Drums.
I like The Drums a lot. He also unfollowed.
Can’t say I’m surprised to find out that Brooklyn hipstercom produces good music and cookie cutter morality.
Well I just followed you on Twitter. And when she was 16, my mother left Tel Aviv on a piano scholarship to Juilliard. So there.
I am so impressed how powerfully and generously you use your gift for critique to express your admiration for the band’s talent (you didn’t have to link to their performance but you did, and I’m glad I listened), while also straight up calling them out over their xenophobic posturing. As for those who’ve cut you off, I’m tempted to just say “Their loss.” But your approach of offering both truths: your honest love and anger/hurt, without demonizing, is the best way to leave the door open for possible future reconciliations.
I am a conservative Israeli born Jew. I know some European non-Jewish truly good folks on the Left, Judeophiles. But they have a blind spot when it comes to the State of the Jews. The propaganda against Israel has been overwhelmingly successful. It feels hopeless, but as Dara Horne says in her book, People Love Dead Jews, what defines us is “resilience”, and you, Eve, are the personification. Am Israel Chai.
Hating on Israel is the only acceptable prejudice now. In fact, it’s encouraged………..often by other (self-hating) Jews.
And that makes me sick.
Your post and the band's memo stating their reasons for cancelling reminded me of the below excerpt from Matt Labash's substack post today. He was not referring to Israel and BDS, but it resonates:
Labash: "It all puts me in mind of that loather of euphemism and language corruption, George Orwell. I’ve quoted other parts of his seminal essay, “Politics and the English Language” here before. And since it’s one I try to return to at least a few times a year to keep my system clean, I’ll do so again, as it pins the tail on the fantasist jackalopes who keep inundating us with their politicized untruths:"
Orwell: "In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing……In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible…..The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer."
expertly written. of course! i admire that you don't hate them and that you do know who they are. I, on the other hand, now only know them for acquiescing to BDS and hating Jews. so...sadly, i never heard of them before and now i do hate them and wouldn't listen to them if it meant keep me from drowning.
Thank you for shining a light on this. It speaks volumes that the band capitulated to BDS pressures. I see so much Jew hatred in an Insta account called by Buddyhead. How can there be so many musicians drinking this xenophobic Kool-aid? Especially with an Israeli band member...wow.
PS
Eve- have you watched the show Hacks? It’s about a young talented writer who gets cancelled and reinvents herself.