Let’s say you own a home and invite someone into your home to serve as entertainment at a backyard party. And then let’s say the entertainer decides to hire an opening act in an attempt to add value to said entertainment.
But then something goes sideways in a hurry: The opening act turns the performance into a campus protest. He speaks of genocide in Gaza and refers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a terrorist organization. This isn’t exactly surprising, however, since this performer has also mocked Jews in the past by wearing a costume complete with a curly black wig, a fake beard, and a large crooked nose.
Of course, we’re talking about the controversy surrounding singer Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour and his decision to tap a reggae singer named Macklemore, who clearly is an antisemitic bigot. He recently performed a song called “Hind’s Hall” at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which hails Columbia University students and outsiders who took over a campus building last year at the height of anti-Israel protests. Macklemore also shouted the phrase “Free Palestine” while displaying images of Gaza.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is Jewish, is also the owner of Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Sheeran is scheduled to perform there before a sold-out crowd later this month. But Kraft demanded that Macklemore be dropped from the tour, or the welcome mat to his house will no longer be welcoming. Kraft also got support from seven other stadium owners, a majority of whom are Jewish, to demand Macklemore be axed.
Sheeran’s team did just that, and the tour, which is expected to generate hundreds of millions in revenue, will continue.
But the Left, led by possible 2028 Democratic presidential nominee Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), is quite upset about Macklemore’s removal. This isn’t exactly surprising, coming from the same congresswoman who cried on the House floor after funding for Israel’s Iron Dome, which provides highly effective air defenses to prevent the country from being blown into oblivion by its enemies who surround the country. She also believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested the next time he touches U.S. soil for what she alleges are “war crimes” while calling Israel “an apartheid state.”
“This is not just about a single musical act,” AOC wrote in a fundraising memo. “This is about how a small handful of powerful people, like stadium owners, can threaten someone’s livelihood in order to prevent an entire massive issue from being spoken about — in this case, the genocide in Gaza.”
About that “genocide” in Gaza: Since the war Hamas started with the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that saw more than 1,200 Israelis murdered, raped and/or kidnapped, deaths in Gaza amount to roughly 3% of the prewar population, according to the Hamas-run health ministry’s own count.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft leaves his seat during an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Miami Heat, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in New York. | (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...12/ap-19106800131620-e1790114065204.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ap-19106800131620.jpg?w=696" alt="New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft leaves his seat during an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Miami Heat, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in New York." class="wp-image-2536511">
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft leaves his seat during an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Miami Heat, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in New York. | (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Compare that to World War II and the Holocaust, when 90% of its Jewish population, more than 3 million people, were killed. That’s genocide. But people such as AOC and Macklemore and Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani continue to throw the term out there in their constant trashing of Israel.
“Oligarchs and billionaires could just as easily prevent people from speaking out about AI, workers’ rights, or any issue they don’t like,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That is what makes this a dangerous precedent. This moment is a test of how far the very powerful can go in censoring speech.”
“And that’s why it’s important that we speak out about it,” she said. “That we make clear that this is an abuse of power. And that we keep the focus on Robert Kraft and the way he’s using his influence to try to control what can and cannot be talked about in America.”
What. A. Hypocrite. Because you may recall that AOC once led the charge to create a Ministry of Truth back during Trump’s first term.
“I do think that several members of Congress in some of my discussions have brought up media literacy because that is part of what happened here,” Ocasio-Cortez went on. “We’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation,” she said back in Jan. 2021.
For AOC, if someone in media argues climate change won’t end the world by 2031, which AOC predicted it would, would that person or platform be reined in by Congress? If Robert Kraft decides he doesn’t want an antisemite performing at his house or his stadium, will he too be reined in for exercising his right to decide who gets to perform on his property and who doesn’t?
For his part, Sheeran has decided to address the controversy during his concerts, but appears to only be making things worse for himself from the PR perspective.
“I don’t want to disappoint fans, and I’ve never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” Sheeran tearfully said recently during his performance at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. “My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian lives, of children’s lives, and this systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.”
He went on to call the Oct. 7 attacks “horrific” and Israel’s response as “disproportionate and unjustifiable.” Result: Anti-Israel protests are now growing outside of Sheeran’s concerts, while Jewish ticket owners have expressed dismay over his comments critical of Israel’s response. And who can blame them? The cheapest tickets for Sheeran’s upcoming date at Gillette Stadium are $120. For a family of four to attend with only halfway decent seats, it’s easily $1,000 for a night out, and the last thing anyone wants to hear is a lecture on Israel and Gaza.
It should also be noted that Sheeran did not say one thing publicly following the Oct. 7 attacks when he was on tour at the time. Nothing. So for him to jump into this conversation now only looks desperate in an attempt to distract from the fact that it was ultimately his decision to have Macklemore open for him when he had to know about his history of mocking and degrading Jews.
Michael Jordan once reportedly said, “Republicans buy sneakers too,” after he was asked why he wasn’t more involved in politics during the height of his career. MJ got it: Everyone has a right to free speech, but some platforms just aren’t the best places to use that right.
Look at award shows over the years: Nearly 30 years ago for the 1997 Academy Awards, 57 million viewers tuned in. Last year, the same awards show drew 17 million, or 40 million viewers fewer. One big reason is all the lectures we’ve heard from Hollywood over the years, all from the Left, which has alienated half the country and therefore had them tune out.
Robert Kraft did the right thing here. It’s his house. His right.
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AOC calls it censorship but believes others should be censored by what the government believes is true or false. Antisemitism is out of control in the United States in 2026. Hate crimes against Jews only continue to skyrocket.
And until those sane and responsible stand up and say “no more” to the Macklemores of the world, it’s only going to get worse.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
