“Little” Steven Van Zandt, the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, slammed anti-Israel boycotters earlier this week, calling them “ignorant obnoxious idiots.”
What began as a Twitter discussion over the band’s decision to cancel a performance in North Carolina last month turned into an exchange about Israel after a user named Patrick wrote:
@StevieVanZandt well we still in the apartied business supporting the rouge state of Israel wen will there be a Gaza city concert
— patrick (@alonaq2009) May 2, 2016
Van Zandt replied:
You and the other Israel boycotters are politically ignorant obnoxious idiots. Israel is one of our two friends> https://t.co/jfLX5bAzyc
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) May 2, 2016
<in the Middle East. In addition to the fact that a boycott in that case would accomplish nothing. Go get educated. https://t.co/jfLX5bAzyc
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) May 2, 2016
When another Twitter user alleged that Israel fit the definition of an apartheid state, Van Zandt pointed out:
The problems there have existed for a thousand years and you want the solution in 140 characters? https://t.co/JyrBwgWMLc
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) May 2, 2016
After a respondent later cited an analysis by the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada, Van Zandt wrote back:
I understand how it might appear that way but your analysis is incorrect. It's a lot more complicated than SA. https://t.co/RfQXimfwE8
— Stevie Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) May 2, 2016
The exchange comes amid rumors that Springsteen and his band will perform in Israel this summer.
David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel, expressed his gratitude to Van Zandt for taking a stand and defending Israel.
“Complicated.” Little Steven, I could kiss you. Yes, it is complicated. Complicated. Complicated. Complicated. If it were simple, we would have solved it. If we could have done so on our own, we would have solved it. Most of us don’t want to rule the Palestinians. We don’t want to send our kids to the army, to risk their lives in conflict with the death cult Islamists. But our country is nine miles wide at its narrowest point. This region, with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic State and that terrifying regime in Iran, is hostile and ruthless. We are strong in our imperfect, gutsy little democracy, we’re defiant, we’re hanging in there. But meeting the challenges we face is complicated. …
And I now know that his proud, patriotic, no-nonsense, anti-racist, anti-apartheid guitarist, sometime producer, sidekick and soulmate, recognizes that our conflict is complicated. So thank you, Steven Van Zandt for doing your little bit, as the song goes, to “Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted.”
[Photo: manu_gt500 / Flickr ]