Howard Schneider covers the Leonard Cohen concert and the controversy over boycott in the Washington Post. Says our canary:
"Good quotes from Shir Hever, an economist with the Alternative Information Center. But why no quotes from Omar Barghouti? And no mention of Israel Discount Bank’s involvement in the concert, and its funding of settlements.
"Note that the only Palestinian quoted is a ‘good Arab,’ one of a tiny fraction who support the concert. Nothing about how Combatants for Peace gave up Leonard’s money & why. Or that Palestinian civil society wrote Amnesty & asked them to pull out.
"Still, both the New York Times & Washington Post are writing about BDS, they’re noticing it."
Why is the allowed
sponsor partner of AI USA for this event the Israel Discount Bank, which is
involved in the construction and the continuation of the Israeli settlement project in the
Israeli occupied territories? The mind boggles.
Why isn’t Leonard Cohen himself making a strong statement on this issue?
I still can’t believe that in his old age, Cohen has become a bigoted Zionist advocate of apartheid.
For all the religious symbolism of his poetry, Cohen always positioned himself as a humanist and not a racist.
I’m reminded of my best friend in Law school, a jew, who cackled that one day I would revert to my inheirated (goy) conservative (bigoted) past. He married a shiksa, I married a jewess. We have not retained contact. I ‘d like to think we both remain
secular humanists.
Sounds like he is