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The Haters Come for Boy George over Israel. I Know What It Feels Like.
(Washington Post) John Ondrasik - Boy George, the flamboyant British singer, recently released a song entitled "We Will Dance Again." He said he wanted to support his Jewish friends still reeling from the atrocities committed by Hamas at the Nova music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Reactions were immediate and overwhelmingly furious. In December 2023, I wrote and released a song entitled "OK (We Are Not OK)." It was meant to address a broken world where the grotesque Oct. 7 massacre could be celebrated on college campuses. The song name-checked Harvard, where a student group issued a statement calling Israel "entirely responsible" for Hamas's orgy of murder, rape and hostage-taking. And I spoke out publicly about the eruption of moral relativism and clear antisemitism that followed the attack. I know personally the vitriol and death threats now coming for Boy George. I know that few artists of stature will come to his defense. And that he will have to hire more security for his concerts. What makes Boy George so enraging to the haters is that he, like me, is not Jewish. That fact sends a signal: This is not a religious battle but a moral one. One of good versus evil, without relativity or equivocation. The writer, a singer-songwriter, performs as Five for Fighting.