{"id":58980,"date":"2018-01-04T08:46:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=58980"},"modified":"2018-01-14T07:39:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T12:39:33","slug":"lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Lorde Giveth, Lorde Taketh Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been big news: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor \u2013 the singer more popularly known as Lorde \u2013 canceled a planned concert in Israel because of flak she had been receiving from fans. Reaction has been mixed. On the one hand, the <\/span>Forward<\/span><\/i> ran an op-ed entitled \u201cThank You, Lorde, For Standing Up For Palestinian Human Rights.\u201d (It should be noted that the op-ed was written by the Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.) On the other hand, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach took out a full-page ad in the <\/span>Washington Post<\/span><\/i> calling the singer a bigot. Before I opine, a brief history lesson:<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a kid (I won\u2019t name the decade but suffice it to say that disco was up and coming), many people in the Jewish community refused to buy Pepsi products. This was because, at the time, Pepsi would not sell in Israel as a consequence of the Arab League Boycott. Fair enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now fast-forward to the early 2000s. Starbucks opened in Israel and closed up shop within a year. Some people in the community called for a boycott of Starbucks, viewing their withdrawal as anti-Semitic, or at the very least partisan. In this case, however, the facts did not warrant such a response. Starbucks went to Israel in good faith and left because they were losing their shirts. Israelis didn\u2019t want or need what Starbucks was selling. Under such circumstances, Starbucks has no moral obligation to remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see the difference between the Starbucks situation and Pepsi in the 1970s? (Dang! I let it slip.) Great. So now let\u2019s contrast Lorde with, say, Roger Waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roger Waters is a bass player and singer, a co-founder of the classic rock band Pink Floyd. Waters is also an anti-Israel activist (not just pro-Palestinian but actively anti-Israel). He has compared the treatment of Palestinians to that of Jews in 1930\u2019s Germany \u2014 a comparison that would be laughable if it weren\u2019t so offensive! At his concerts, Rogers has displayed a pig-shaped balloon embellished with Jewish symbols, including the Jewish star. He repeats familiar conspiracy theories, such as attributing US policies to the \u201cIsraeli propaganda machine\u201d and \u201cthe Jewish lobby.\u201d Rogers urges other musicians not to play in Israel. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has called Waters an \u201copen hater of Jews\u201d and an op-ed in the Vatican newspaper has criticized Rogers for \u201cunrestrained anti-Semitism.\u201d Rogers supports \u2014 and actively promotes \u2014 BDS. If you want to boycott Rogers back, that seems a perfectly reasonable course of action. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s compare that with Lorde\u2019s situation. First off, I think it\u2019s noteworthy that she scheduled a concert in Israel in the first place. But after doing so, she became the subject of a campaign whose entire purpose was to get her to cancel. Think about this scenario: here\u2019s a 21-year-old girl from New Zealand, who doesn\u2019t have a dog in the Middle East conflict, under intense pressure not to play in Israel. From a strictly-objective business standpoint, it was probably a wise move to cancel. She was in a lose-lose situation and she no doubt made the call that would cause the least damage. Does she have a moral obligation to play in Israel if she deems that doing so is going to hurt her in the big picture? I don\u2019t think so. Even her cancellation announcement was far from politically charged: \u201ci\u2019ve received an overwhelming number of messages and letters and have had a lot of discussions with people holding many views, and i think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show\u201d (sic). This is not exactly a scathing condemnation of Israeli policies. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, none of this is to say that one can\u2019t be offended by Lorde\u2019s cancellation or that one can\u2019t boycott her music. That is certainly one\u2019s prerogative if one feels that course of action is called for. I think, however, that\u2019s it\u2019s important to differentiate between an \u201copen hater of Jews\u201d who has demonstrated \u201cunrestrained anti-Semitism\u201d and a young artist who was willing to play in Israel but caved under intense pressure. So far as I can see, there\u2019s no reason to think that Lorde is an enemy of Israel, let alone an anti-Semite. <\/span><\/p>\n

It should be noted that part of the response to Lorde\u2019s cancellation has been to call her a hypocrite for playing in Russia, a country that is not exactly lauded as a bastion of human rights. To this I have two observations: (1) Lorde never claimed to be canceling her Israel concert as a great humanitarian gesture. Quite the opposite, \u201ci think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show\u201d is a rather lukewarm statement; and (2) Lorde was not the subject of a massive campaign pressuring her not to play in Russia. So far as I can tell, pretty much nobody even cared about it until after she canceled her show in Israel, and then only to accuse her of hypocrisy and not so much because of the thing itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lorde is not a player in this conflict; she\u2019s a pawn. The other side has made a move to their advantage but that doesn\u2019t mean the game is over. Roger Waters may be fully invested in his anti-Israel activism but I think the possibility still exists that we might be able to enlighten Lorde with, you know, the actual facts. If we do, she may then be able to enlighten her fan base. But we\u2019ll never have the opportunity to find out if we respond to this incident by burning our bridges.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been big news: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor \u2013 the singer more popularly known as Lorde \u2013 canceled a planned concert in Israel because of flak she had been receiving from fans. Reaction has been mixed. On the one hand, the Forward ran an op-ed entitled \u201cThank You, Lorde, For Standing Up For Palestinian Human<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":58981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-op-ed"],"yoast_head":"\nLorde Giveth, Lorde Taketh Away - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 21-year-old singer popularly known as Lorde has canceled a concert planned for Israel. 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Does that warrant a boycott? it\u2019s important to differentiate between an \u201copen hater of Jews\u201d who has demonstrated \u201cunrestrained anti-Semitism\u201d and a young artist who was willing to play in Israel but caved under intense pressure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-04T13:46:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-14T12:39:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/GettyImages-536813209.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/\",\"name\":\"Lorde Giveth, Lorde Taketh Away - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/news-op-ed\/lorde-giveth-lorde-taketh-away\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/GettyImages-536813209.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-04T13:46:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-14T12:39:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/50551cbad585e4b2a31b4b0227e06c1c\"},\"description\":\"The 21-year-old singer popularly known as Lorde has canceled a concert planned for Israel. 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