Alternative rock band the Pixies has become the latest in a series of musical acts to cancel performances in Israel following the “Gaza Freedome Flotilla” incident, according to the Jerusalem Post. How unfortunate that most celebrities seem unable to hold the Jewish state in anything other than disdainful contempt.
Last week the pop-rock/hip-hop group Gorillaz and British dance/punk quartet Klaxons canceled their own Tel Aviv performances, slated for last weekend’s PicNic festival in Tel Aviv, and last month rock musician Elvis Costello canceled his June and July performances in Israel. Mr. Costello took things a step further, also joining the economic boycott of the state in order to protest its survival - er, “intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.” In similar leftist celebrity fashion, Carlos Santana and Gil Scott-Heron put the kibosh on their Israel shows around the same time.
In an apology puportedly from the band itself the Pixies said the cancellation was “beyond all our control.” Was it really? At least Mr. Costello took responsibility for his own faux-humanitarian, anti-Israel bias (though not in so many words) by explaining the reasons for his concert cancellations. The memo from the Pixies just seems to us like a cowardly retreat from a group that didn’t want to do anything that might make it look as though it were supporting Israel.
