Our Wednesday News Analysis | Macklemore and the US Cultural Revolution for Palestine

A Palestinian man walks past a mural painted on the rubble of a destroyed building and dedicated to US rapper, singer, dancer, and DJ, Benjamin Haggerty, known as Macklemore, in Gaza City on September 19, 2026. (Photo by Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty Images)

"In the past, the story might have ended there. Macklemore would have been isolated and his career placed in jeopardy,
while Sheeran, the promoters, and the stadium owners continued largely untouched.

Those days are gone. Global solidarity with Macklemore—and, by extension, with Palestine—spread so rapidly that the people responsible
for his removal were forced to issue a series of defensive, sometimes contradictory explanations.

By then, however, the damage had been done. Sheeran faced mounting boycott calls, protests, and even an Irish radio station's suspension of his music.
Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Aaron Rowe withdrew from the tour, while Beoga, Sheeran’s backing band, also pulled out.
Artists and public figures began speaking openly about the genocide, freedom of expression, and the power of billionaires to dictate the political boundaries of art.

Podcasters and social-media commentators also mobilized, reaching audiences of millions and digging deeper into the controversy.
They began asking who Kraft was, examining his longstanding relationship with Israel;
his campaign against Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions; and the enormous financial machinery behind his political advocacy.

The attempt to punish Macklemore ultimately placed Kraft, Sheeran, and the entertainment establishment itself under unprecedented scrutiny.
Far from silencing the message of Palestinian freedom, their actions amplified it.”

Page Six Hollywood recently declared: “War of Open Letters Erupts Between Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine Factions in Hollywood.” Only a few years ago, a headline like this would have seemed unthinkable.

The article described an increasingly open struggle between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel forces within the entertainment industry. On one side are artists and other industry figures taking a clear stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza; on the other are defenders of Israel attempting to deny that genocide in the face of irrefutable evidence.

Yet even this framing failed to tell the whole story. What is unfolding is far more consequential than a quarrel among celebrities or a “war of open letters.” It is part of a brewing cultural revolution in American society—one that has now reached the highest echelons of the country’s cultural establishment. And in that struggle, Israel is losing—and losing badly.

When the pendulum swings this far, neither Kraft’s money nor the stadiums he controls can stop the movement.

Though the article acknowledged that support for Palestine has become powerful enough to divide Hollywood openly, it concealed the scale of the transformation underway by presenting the moment as a “war” between two factions...

Read more: Macklemore and the US Cultural Revolution for Palestine

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‘MORAL COWARDS’: NETANYAHU RAGES AS DELEGATES ABANDON HIS UN SPEECH

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/moral-cowards-netanyahu-rages-as-delegates-abandon-his-un-speech/

By Palestine Chronicle Staff
Published September 24, 2026

Dozens of diplomats abandoned Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN address, leaving him to defend Israel’s genocide in Gaza before an empty hall.

Dozens of diplomats abandoned Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN address. (Photo: Video grab)

Key Developments

• Dozens of diplomats walked out as Netanyahu approached the podium, following a Palestinian appeal for delegates to boycott his address.
• Netanyahu called those who left “moral cowards” and attacked protesters as “phony human rights protesters.”
• The speech came amid an ICC arrest warrant, mounting international condemnation and an absence of meetings with senior US or Western officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a mass diplomatic walkout as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

Dozens of representatives rose from their seats and left the chamber as Netanyahu approached the podium, leaving large sections of the hall empty before he began speaking.

The walkout followed an appeal from the Palestinian mission to the UN, which had urged diplomats to interrupt Netanyahu’s appearance with an organized departure.

In its message to delegations, the Palestinian mission described Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and said a mass walkout would demonstrate that the international community would not remain silent in the face of genocide, war crimes and Israel’s illegal occupation.

Netanyahu immediately attacked the representatives who had left. “Before I begin, just a quick announcement: if there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” he said.

The departure was broadcast during official UN coverage of the General Assembly, while journalists inside the chamber reported that many Arab and other international representatives had joined the protest.

The Israeli prime minister accused the departing diplomats of hypocrisy, claiming that Israel had protected their countries by attacking Iran and its regional allies.

“It’s hard to imagine more mind-blowing hypocrisy,” he said.

Netanyahu also targeted demonstrators protesting outside the UN and those who had rejected his appearance inside the chamber.

“Where were you when the Iranian tyrants butchered and maimed tens of thousands of unarmed Iranian civilians?” he asked, dismissing his opponents as “phony human rights protesters.”

The walkout presented a highly visible illustration of Israel’s growing international isolation, nearly three years into its genocidal war on Gaza...

Read more: ‘Moral Cowards’: Netanyahu Rages as Delegates Abandon His UN Speech

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NETANYAHU AND EISENKOT WANT YOU TO FORGET THE WAR

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026-09-29/ty-article-opinion/.premium/both-netanyahu-and-eisenkot-want-you-to-forget-about-the-war-dont-let-them/000001a0-e948-dfbb-afa4-fb582e7f0000

By Aluf Benn
Published September 29, 2026

As the election campaign fixates on two issues, another has been pushed to the margins: the war – and everything that came after October 7

Israeli troops in Gaza, 2023. Credit: IDF Spokesperson

A country whose leader isn't accountable and tries to prevent political representation for a fifth of its citizens will find it difficult to call itself a democracy. But another equally important issue has been pushed to the margins: the war. Remember?

… voters remember not only what happened on October 7, but also what lies ahead, and the price they’re about
to pay for fulfilling Netanyahu's Sparta-like visions and endless war, which he declares he will continue.

Whereas his opponents, who promise a "government of repair" after the disasters of the current coalition,
must begin their repair by ending the war. There's no more urgent step for saving Israel.

[Editor’s Note | Will things really change in Israel? Yes! How long? Not long!]

The election campaign is currently focused on two issues: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's disregard of the warnings he received before the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and Arab representation in the Knesset and the government.

Each side targets its opponent's pressure points. The "bloc of change" emphasizes that the prime minister shirked responsibility, while Netanyahu relies on polls that indicate Gadi Eisenkot's emerging difficulty in forming a coalition without Arab parties' support.

These are important, even critical, issues. A country whose leader isn't accountable and tries to prevent political representation for a fifth of its citizens will find it difficult to call itself a democracy. But there is another equally important issue that has been pushed to the margins: the war. Remember?

An ongoing war across multiple fronts for the past three years. A war whose budgetary cost is approaching 450 billion shekels ($147 billion). A war for which the Israel Defense Forces is drafting combat soldiers for 100 days of reserve duty this year. A war in which Israel is occupying most of the Gaza Strip, a large area in southern Lebanon and hundreds of additional square kilometers in Syria.

This situation seems normal, apparently. In the absence of public pressure to change it, candidates aren't talking about ending the war in the foreseeable future. They settle for empty slogans about "eliminating Hamas" – a worn-out headline that has starred in many past election campaigns, but Hamas alone has remained unimpressed and continues its operations. Assassinations, announced daily by the IDF, of a Nukhba force operative who invaded Israel on October 7 or abused hostages, or some commander in Rafah, don't affect the balance of power in Gaza.

Here's a reminder of Israel's security situation on the eve of the election. The main front was and remains in the West Bank, where the bulk of the IDF's regular ground force is deployed. Its tasks are seemingly contradictory: both to prevent a third Palestinian intifada, and also enable land grabbing, settlements' expansion and the oppression of the Palestinians. Netanyahu is completely committed to this policy. Eisenkot warned that the violence in the West Bank by "extremist Jewish militias" was "criminal terrorism," while opposing a Palestinian state in the same breath...

Read more: Netanyahu and Eisenkot Want You to Forget the War