Musician Nick Cave said in an interview last week that he would perform in Israel, and slammed Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters for his “embarrassing” anti-Israel stance, adding that cultural boycotts do not work to create change.
Cave spoke to Reason.com’s Nick Gillespie in a recent podcast.
The Independent reported:
The Australian musician, 66, released his latest album Wild God with the Bad Seeds today (Friday 30 August), on which he explores themes of doubt and faith.
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“I just feel – and I’m no friend of the government of Israel – but I just feel on some level that I find it difficult to come to terms with using my music in order to punish ordinary people because of the acts of their government. It sort of comes down to that, to some degree,” he told the Reason podcast in an episode released on 28 August.
Cave also recalled being inspired by a trip to Israel:
“This is where I could stand on the sea of Galilee, and I could go to where Christ was supposedly crucified… this was extraordinarily excited [sic] for me,” he said, “and regardless of all the horrific complications that are going on in Israel at the moment, deep down I have an abiding love for that place [and] the history of the Jewish people.”
Cave, whom Gillespie noted has a history of defending free expression, said that he still listened to Kanye West’s gospel music despite his antisemitism, though he described West as a “broken, fucked-up individual.”
Cave added that he personally had a “particular problem with antisemitism.” He described Waters and his antisemitism as “deeply embarrassing to the boycott movement.”
He added that efforts to boycott Israel just “emboldened the very worst aspects” of the Israeli government, who used boycott efforts to reinforce an “isolationist” stance.
Stereogum noted that Waters responded to Cave on Instagram, calling him “the Aussie bloke.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.