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(NewsNation) — Jewish rapper Matisyahu isn’t holding back. One year after Israel was attacked by Hamas — with 107 hostages still being held — Matisyahu slams celebrities and fellow musicians for not supporting Israel, says he’s voting for the first time in 2024 and that his ballot’s for Trump.
“I’ve stayed out of politics, like, most of my life,” Matisyahu said, adding, “It’s not really my cup of tea. … I’ll come out and say it right here. I don’t know if I’ve said it before. I don’t think I’ve ever voted before. I couldn’t stand Trump leading up into all of this, just his personality. I just didn’t like his personality, and I’m gonna f—— vote for Trump this time.”
The reason?
“After October 7 and the fact that certain people haven’t stood up and spoken out and made it, you know, a priority, to think about what’s going on … I just feel that the Jews are, like, under attack, and that the current administration really doesn’t care, really doesn’t understand the depth of it, and that we will be more protected by Trump.”
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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – APRIL 03: Matisyahu performs at Zappa Ganei Yehoshua Park Hayarkon on April 03, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Shlomi Pinto/Getty Images) -
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – APRIL 03: Matisyahu performs at Zappa Ganei Yehoshua Park Hayarkon on April 03, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Shlomi Pinto/Getty Images) -
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 14: Matisyahu (C) performs with The Maccabeats during ‘March For Israel’ at the National Mall on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The large pro-Israel gathering comes as the Israel-Hamas war enters its sixth week following the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images) -
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 05: Matisyahu performs at NYC Jewish Solidarity March on January 05, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
Matisyahu doesn’t mince words
As for his fellow musicians and celebrities who have stayed silent about Israel and the hostages while wearing pins of support for Gaza, Matis doesn’t mince words, especially for people like Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Ava DuVernay, who all wore “Artists4Ceasefire” and Palestine flag pins to the Oscars.
“These people are insane,” he said. “These would be the first people to be beheaded if they were to go to any of these countries (like Iran or Gaza). They have no clue. They’re totally ignorant and living in this backwards, weird reality where they are treating the good guy like the bad guy, and they’re treating people that are terrorists, that are evil, that blow up civilians, you know, and treating them as if they’re some type of freedom fighters.”
Matis continued: “And, you know, it’s just kind of like a sickness that was already here, you know, it already existed. And when something bad happens, you know, it’s just like there’s a flare-up, and now you can act, we can actually see the brokenness of America. And it’s just like something in the fabric is wrong, you know, with the way people are seeing things, and the way people are reacting to things, and this time, the Jews are at — we’re at the (other) end of that.”
As for fellow rapper Macklemore — who hosted the Palestine Will Live Forever festival in Seattle in September (during which he shouted “F— America” on stage) — Matisyahu said: “Macklemore, first of all, you should listen to my friend Remedy’s song called ‘Ben’ about you, and you should listen to it. It’s, it’s one of the greatest songs I think I’ve heard in a long time, and it inspired me to do a whole album with Remedy that we’re now working on, that is a pro-Zionist, pro-Jewish record. And so thank you for that. Your small-mindedness and your ridiculousness actually inspired something that’s probably going to inspire a lot of Jews. So in a weird, backwards way, that’s the way things work. And that, you know, it’s just insane to me.”
Celebrities silent on Oct. 7 attacks
Meanwhile, many famous Jews have been largely silent about the October 7 attacks and the developments since. People like Ben Stiller, Natalie Portman, Adam Sandler, Mila Kunis and Barbra Streisand have kept their heads down — unlike, say, Jerry Seinfeld, who has been openly pro-Israel — something Matisyahu says is sad.
“I think (their silence ) is really sad,” he said, adding, “And again, I think it’s like a result of a sickness that already was happening with American Jews. And basically, there’s been such a detachment from any type of understanding of what it means to be a Jew. This is something that is like an identity thing that a lot of young people have been able to never have to ask that question.
“They know they have Jewish parents, or they know they have some kind of Jewish connection with themselves. But they don’t even know what it means, what they represent, and so when something happens, you know, they’re on the fence, like, how important is this to me? And for a lot of people, it’s just simply not that important.
“Like, you can try to say, ‘Oh, they’re afraid of their career,’ or this, that or the other thing. But for some people like myself or Michael Rapaport — our gut reaction is just, we have to protect our people. Come out, speak out. We know that this is us, that this is us that’s under attack. And for some people, they just don’t feel that. So it begs the question of are they really Jewish? That’s the question that I have. You know, right? Maybe not.”