When rapper Macklemore was dropped from singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour after accusing Israel of “genocide” on stage, all other opening acts pulled out of the tour in solidarity. Sheeran said he simply wanted to play music. He said he never wanted to be an activist musician, but intended his shows to be about unity and humanity. Even his subsequent expression of sympathy for Palestinians didn’t spare him from the wrath of anti-Israel musicians and activists.
Sheeran played his next show in Philadelphia alone. In his opening remarks, he condemned the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, as “horrific and compounding centuries of Jewish pain.” He went on to call the situation in Gaza “catastrophic.”
Israel has been the focus of a global obsession unlike any other country in the world. In 2024, the world’s media devoted more coverage to Israel than any other nation besides the United States, even though Israel is a country the size of New Jersey. The world’s fixation defies reason: One small country commands more attention than actual genocides, famines and kidnapped children internationally.
From costume to crusade
In 2014, Macklemore performed in a costume with a large hooked prosthetic nose, black wig and bushy beard—a grotesque antisemitic caricature. In his eventual apology, the rapper said he had only meant to “surprise the people at the show with a random costume” and conceded that it could be “ascribed to a Jewish caricature.” The Anti-Defamation League’s longtime director at the time, Abe Foxman, accepted the apology, and Macklemore urged fans to support the ADL.
The images resurfaced recently as the Sheeran controversy grew.
This time, there was no apology. Opening for Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Macklemore performed “Hind’s Hall,” his tribute to the violent protesters who broke into and occupied a Columbia University building in April 2024 as part of its anti-Israel activities on campus. They held two janitors hostage and called them “Jew-lovers,” according to a lawsuit the janitors filed against them. Columbia settled separate complaints they brought against the school.
The rapper also declared “Free Palestine” as images of Gaza played on screen. Addressing Jewish fans, he insisted: “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.” The ADL disagreed, citing his record of “demonizing Israel and Israelis, falsely accusing Israel of genocide and engaging in antisemitic rhetoric and behavior.”
New England Patriots owner and Jewish philanthropist Robert Kraft barred Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium, which his business group owns, calling out his “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.” Macklemore pledged his entire $1 million in tour earnings to six Gaza aid organizations, including three with alleged ties to Hamas. He publicly challenged Kraft to match it. Kraft answered with $2 million to “fight this humanitarian crisis.”
No Jews, no news
The anti-Israel obsession is widespread. The world news media published more than twice as many stories about Israel as 48 countries in Africa combined in 2024.
When X-Files actress Gillian Anderson asked her Instagram followers to help children suffering in Sudan’s civil war, the comments were filled with demands that she talk about Gaza instead. Anderson noted that Sudan is “not always in the news” – and she was right.
The United Nations has described the African nation as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Multiple NGOs, as well as the U.S. State Department, determined that an actual genocide and ethnic cleansing were underway in Sudan, along with widespread famine, unlike the false accusations hurled against Israel. Yet this crisis has barely registered in the news; no campus protests took place across the country, no city-council resolutions passed. For every one news story on Sudan’s actual genocide, there are 40 media stories about Israel’s alleged “genocide.”
Nigeria shows how quickly the world can look away. In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dorm, most of them Christian. Boko Haram is an Islamist terror group whose name translates to “Western education is forbidden.” The world rallied behind #BringBackOurGirls, and then-first lady Michelle Obama delivered the president’s weekly address to plead for their return. Twelve years later, 87 girls are still missing—and their parents are begging the world not to forget them.
Sudan and Nigeria are not exceptions. An analysis of nearly 15 million news articles from the past decade found that in 2024, one in every 26 news stories worldwide mentioned Israel. The world’s press also covered Israel more negatively than Iran, North Korea and China. Media coverage of other crises faded within months, but coverage of Israel is unrelenting.
‘We are not running away’
The obsession takes its toll on Jewish communities in the United States and around the world. Antisemitic attacks have skyrocketed, including recent synagogue attacks during Jewish High Holiday prayers.
A rabbi in Los Angeles began his Rosh Hashanah sermon by reminding congregants where the exits are, mentioning that there are volunteers in place if “we need to evacuate the children in the youth program.” In San Francisco, fliers on synagogue seats told worshippers to run, hide or fight in the event of an attack. The American Jewish community is forced to spend more than $1 billion annually on security just for Jews to pray in peace.
Rather than retreat, Jewish leaders are calling on their communities to stand up. In his Yom Kippur sermon, New York City Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a well-known Reform rabbi, warned the damage will not stop with Jews: “Unhinged and obsessive loathing of Israel is corrupting American values. If allowed to spread, it is not only Jews who will pay the price. America will, too.” He urged Jews to “stay and fight” through advocacy and political action, and challenged young Jews: “Be heroic. Join the struggle. Do not sit it out.”
Young Jews are answering that call. Several hundred Jewish middle and high school students gathered to pray and sing outside New York City Mayor Mamdani’s residence days before Yom Kippur. “We stand here because we want to show that we are unafraid and that the campaign to diminish our love for Israel will not work,” a rabbi told them. “We are not running. We are standing here in the open in the streets of New York.” One student told the crowd: “Every single time, we are here, still lighting candles, still telling stories, still choosing to live Jewish lives.”
Points to consider:
1. The world’s newsrooms are disproportionately fixated on Israel.
Even in peacetime, Israel cannot escape the media’s crosshairs. In 2019, a year with no Hamas-Israel war, the world media still ran more stories about Israel than seven of the 10 most populous nations, accounting for nearly three billion people. The Associated Press once had more than 40 staffers covering Israelis and Palestinian, significantly more staff than it had for all 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa combined. Scrutiny this relentless is not journalism. It is a perverse fixation.
2. Decades of negative coverage turned one small democracy into the world’s villain.
Many blame Israel’s prime minister for the country’s declining popularity, but the fixation predates him and will likely outlast him. The false genocide charge against Israel dates back to Soviet propaganda campaigns of the 1970s. The loss of civilian lives in Gaza is tragic, but nowhere near the threshold of genocide. The charge is a Big Lie intentionally wielded against Israel and its supporters. Repeat a lie often enough, and people come to believe it. The result: Yale University’s incoming freshmen are now more critical of Israel than of China. Media coverage that repeats lies is not responsible journalism.
3. The Israel obsession crowds out real crises, abroad and at home.
Ethiopia’s war in Tigray killed an estimated 600,000 people, yet it barely registered on American TV news. The world’s press used the word “genocide” in 13% of its Israel coverage last year and in fewer than 1% of stories on China’s genocide of the Uyghurs. About 100 American city councils spent hours debating Gaza resolutions, for a war thousands of miles from their own streets. Americans are struggling with rising costs, concerns about artificial-intelligence risks and threats to democracy. These are the core issues that celebrities and politicians should address rather than their relentless obsession with Israel.
4. Standing up to bullies and liars is not censorship.
The loudest voices against Israel have the biggest megaphones, yet none belong on an entertainment stage. Concert-goers buy tickets to hear music, not political lectures. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) accused Robert Kraft of convincing other NFL stadium owners “to censor speech,” yet Macklemore was quickly offered a free, city-sponsored concert in Dearborn, Mich. On the right, political commentators and podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens broadcast to millions every week. No one is silencing them.
5. Jewish resilience and shared purpose are reasons for optimism.
Author Dara Horn describes a “relentless campaign to erase Jewish civilization and push Jews out of public life.” In response, many Jews are showing renewed pride—wearing visible symbols of their Jewish identity and deepening ties to Jewish communal life. Thousands of college students celebrated Rosh Hashanah with Hillel this year, and New York’s Met Council marked a record High Holidays food distribution for families in need. These acts of courage and connection show that identity, unity and moral clarity remain stronger than hate.
