When he’s not involved in his musical pursuits, the lead singer of the heavy metal group Disturbed is lending his voice to defend the state of Israel, posting numerous messages on Facebook and Twitter and now offering his thoughts in a radio interview where he blasted the mainstream media for what he contends is biased coverage.
Singer David Draiman visits the SiriusXM Studios on August 7, 2013 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images.)
Singer David Draiman visits the SiriusXM Studios, Aug. 7, 2013 in New York City. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images.)
In an interview this week on the Voice of Israel radio, singer and songwriter David Draiman warned that media coverage of Israel is so “skewed,” he fears it’s setting the stage for a new Holocaust.
“The mainstream media is setting the stage for a new Holocaust. They are the reason that this anti-Semitic fervor has been perpetuated over the entire globe,” said Draiman, who is the son of Israelis and the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
“It’s interesting how the media loved the state of Israel and loved our story when we were the underdog, and now that we’re no longer the underdog, now that we have the ability and the military might and the intestinal fortitude to always defend ourselves and defend our people and defend our right to exist, they damn us for that and they condemn us for that,” the heavy metal frontman added.
Draiman describes himself as a social liberal who hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said that even as he strongly supports Israel, he mourns “the loss of human life on both sides,” including Palestinian children who are “taught from the minute they’re born to hate” and to be “instruments of jihad.
He called mainstream media coverage of Israel “shameful, unbelievably biased” and “progressive, liberal propaganda.”
Draiman is particularly outspoken on social media, linking to articles by conservative and pro-Israel blogs and groups including the Algemeiner, Truth Revolt and StandWithUs. This week, he posted and retweeted criticism of the EU court ordering Hamas be removed from its terrorism blacklist, Harvard University dining services reportedly boycotting the Israeli company SodaStream and Palestinians glorifying terrorism.
Draiman said that news organizations including CNN, Reuters and the BBC “jump at the opportunity to chastise and crucify Israel every chance they get while ignoring and making excuses for every single transgression and every single war crime committed by these terrorists.”
He contended that the media is being “played” by Hamas, for example presenting Hamas-generated casualty figures as reliable numbers.
The mainstream media and progressives don’t realize Israel is “the last bastion of freedom and true liberty that exists in the entire region and you’re spitting in its face,” Draiman said.
He warned that the “single greatest most powerful catalyst for hatred that exists in the world is their [the mainstream media’s] skewed views being perpetuated all over the planet.”
Draiman told Israel Radio that even though the business advisers of his rock group suggested “maybe I shouldn’t stick my neck out so much” politically, he chose to continue being outspoken on his personal social media accounts, making clear he doesn’t speak on behalf of the band.
The singer said he has some 200 relatives in Israel, including his grandmother and brother.
Draiman said his grandmother survived Auschwitz at age 6 by crawling under the legs of other women to avoid being moved into the gas chamber, and his grandfather survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp because he was strong and was tasked with carting the bodies of slain Jews into the crematorium.
He penned the song “Never Again” as a message to Holocaust deniers.
Draiman said he believes that hatred today is “spreading like wildfire, I’ve never seen anti-Semitism like this that exists in my lifetime.”
He believes that activists who promote a boycott of Israel are part of a wave of anti-Semitism.
“At the end of the day, the anti-Semites are anti-Semities and they’re going to hate Jews no matter what we do, and unfortunately the floodgates have been open,” Draiman said.
“It’s a very frightening time, and I think it’s more important now than ever to be strong and steadfast in our support of our right to have our country and our right to actually have the land that we have always had,” Draiman told Israel Radio. “People go ahead and perpetuate these myths that Jews were not there prior to 1948 or not in certain areas prior to 1967.”
“I will always be a defender of my family and my people and there’s not going to be anyone out there no matter what kind of threats or whatever kind of hatred that’s spewed that’s ever going to dissuade me from it,” he said.
Listen to Draiman’s interview:
Featured image: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.