Simple disappointment cannot be discounted. Jerusalem is a different sort of mecca than the East Village, where I lived until a year ago; live indie rock, unfortunately, is not among its cultural highlights. Moreover, the city suffers from a surplus of extremely bad music: one is often subjected, in both public and private establishments, to blaring ultra-Orthodox synthesizer medleys, complete with Yiddishized Hebrew vocals, the lyrics a jumble of overly optimistic biblical and liturgical quotes. Since arriving here in October I have not seen a single show, and was looking forward to catching all three of these beloved icons of indie rock lore.

My anger is not primarily political. I do disagree with the idea of cultural boycotts, which seem designed to punish the people-the fans–who are in all likelihood the artist’s most ardent political and spiritual allies. So I ask these musicians: Why bring your music to those most in need of inspiration and a sense of community? That would be too easy.

I am sympathetic to the cultural and political voices that would foreground principles of humanitarian justice over nationalistic fervor; I believe in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that encourages the forces of pluralism and progressivism on both sides. In my assessment, the campaign to deligitimize Israel hampers the possibility of progress towards a two-state solution, because, whatever it claims to achieve, in reality it emboldens Hamas’s cynical, single-minded theocracy to terrorize Israel, and amplifies the daily risks and suffering endured by ordinary Palestinians and Israelis.

Still, as I read over the cancellation statements put out by Elvis, the Pixies, and Devendra, something more than garden-variety disappointment was bothering me. I knew it wasn’t just a principled dispute over political means and ends, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was about. My first response was to defend them, make excuses: Elvis is British. The Pixies are middle-aged. 

Searching for answers via google, I came across a New York Times article from a few years ago in which Devendra Banhart was singled out among a group of artists admired for being culturally and artistically "unafraid." Devendra has played Tel Aviv before and has a relationship with the city and the fans. His manager promised, explicitly and repeatedly, that "under no circumstances" would he cancel the show. Then he did, the day before. What changed in the meantime? What kind of pressure was brought to bear as the dates approached; what kind of pitch did it reach? I don’t know why, ultimately, Devendra Banhart made his decision. But it does not strike me as a fearless act.

Perhaps you are a musician who does not feel Israel has the right to exist in its current form. Perhaps you see the conflict with the Palestinians in moralistic terms starkly unfavorable to Israel. Perhaps you see your appearance as lending legitimacy to these oppressive policies, and that is something you refuse to do.

When you do book dates in Israel and advertise that you are playing here, you are already, it seems to me, saying something very different. Elvis Costello, for example, eloquently voiced one alternate version of what it might mean to perform in a country whose government’s policy you oppose-just two weeks before canceling, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. "The people who call for a boycott of Israel own the narrow view that thinks performing there must be about profit and endorsing the hawkish policy of the government. It’s like never appearing in the US because you didn’t like Bush’s policies or boycotting England because of Margaret Thatcher. When you look at any democracy, no matter how flawed in the worst time when a government is in power acting in an irresponsible, violent and despicable way, the only answer is dialogue and reconciliation."

Were any of these artists unaware of the region’s charged political situation when they decided to play these shows? The region is constantly and famously subject to spasms of controversy and conflict. Until peace is achieved, this will likely remain the status quo. Alluding to "events beyond all our control" having "conspired against us," the Pixies invoked, at least in part, the recent flotilla incident – in which Israeli commandos boarding a humanitarian-aid ship intent on breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza were ambushed by the activists and responded with live fire, leaving nine of the activists dead – as a moral red-line that rendered their appearance here suddenly unconscionable. It seems natural to ask: prior to that incident, had they felt the situation here to have been, more or less, within their control?

Without claiming special vision into the hearts and minds of men, it seems reasonable to speculate that some version of the anti-boycott philosophy articulated by Elvis Costello may have played a role in the Pixies’ and Devendra’s initial decisions to play Tel Aviv as well. So what happened? Their mush-mouthed cancellation notes all strive to sound smart while slithering out of accountability’s reach. And this is where the disappointment really starts to set in.

"…events beyond all our control have conspired against us (Pixies)…merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent (Elvis)…it seems that we are being used to support views that are not our own (Devendra)…

These sad, spineless phrases are unworthy of the brilliant lyricists in whose names they are written. Reading them makes me want to lock myself in a room with Blood and Chocolate, Surfer Rosa, and Nino Rojo-enduring examples of language used to express the rawest experience, the hardest-earned insight, the most deeply personal human truths. By contrast, these notes, with their awkward overreliance on the passive-voice, read as a series of furtive dodges. The artists’ protestations of being somehow waylaid by new "events" or information just prior to their appearances rings too hollow to be taken seriously. By Elvis’ own logic, these so-called new "events" only make the case for rejecting artistic boycotts that much more urgent. It is, again, a logic that applies to "any democracy, no matter how flawed in the worst time when a government is in power acting in an irresponsible, violent and despicable way." If "the only answer is dialogue and reconciliation," and music has the potential to move those processes forward, then aren’t these exactly the kinds of places conscientious artists should be most eager to perform? They booked…they were pressured and intimidated…and they caved.

Read those quotes again, then recall that among the most outspoken celebrity critics of artistic boycotts of Israel this year have been James Cameron ("Film allows us to see the world through the lens of another person’s reality, and as such is our most powerful tool for bringing people together and for avoiding conflict") and Elton John ("I have always believed that music inhabits a world set apart from politics, religious differences or prejudice of any kind…Music is, and always will be, a universal language, free from boundaries.")-who played to a sold-out Ramat Gan football stadium on June 17.

For a person whose most formative moments were shaped either directly by or against the rhythmic incantations of the evolving musical movement called alternately college radio/alternative/indie rock, seeing some of my heroes outflanked by a director of blockbusters and by a onetime singer-songwriter who long ago sold out to muzak-like pop, has left me with some unsettling questions.

Pixies, Elvis, Devendra: In holding fast to my own principled rejection of artistic boycotts, I’m going to keep listening to your music. In the meantime, I humbly invite you to re-watch Titanic and contemplate the potential of art to cultivate empathy across cultural and political divides. Then listen to "Tiny Dancer" and try to remember back to a time when you said and did what you thought was right, irrespective of social pressure from any side of the political spectrum, and how good that felt.

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