Never one to shy away from an argument, Brian Eno has weighed in on the war in Gaza.
The comments came via a published letter on David Byrne’s website (Byrne claims Eno sent him the letter via email, and “felt a great responsibility” to publish it), and showed the famously lefty producer lashing out at Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine.
Eno seems most critical, however, of America, who he appears to blame for continuing “its blind support of this one-sided exercise in ethnic cleansing.” Writing that he usually considers America to be “compassionate, broadminded, creative, eclectic, tolerant and generous,” he then goes on to equate the government’s support of Israel with support of the Ku Klux Klan. He writes that by backing a group of people that “equate the word Arab with ‘vermin’… that is the culture our taxes are defending. It’s like sending money to the Klan.”
Byrne then attempted to temper Eno’s angry remarks with a note from Eno’s friend Peter Schwartz, which damns both Israel and Palestine for their actions, adding in his introduction, “what’s clear is that no one has the moral high ground.” [via Pitchfork]