Conservative commentator and podcast host Megyn Kelly called for Jewish groups and Israelis to boycott pop star Taylor Swift over Swift’s attending a comedy show from which the proceeds went to a Gazan charity, arguing that Swift’s attendance at the event was an insult to those groups given the horrific Hamas attack on Israel and the alleged anti-Israel history of the group the fundraising event raised funds for.
That group is ANERA, or American Near East Refugee Aid, which is providing aid to Gazans as the highly destructive Israeli counter-attack into the Gaza Strip continues. ANERA claims to be non-political and receives millions of dollars in funding from the US government.
Swift, as background, on Friday attended a Ramy Youssef show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She went with a number of her equally famous friends, including Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne and Zoe Kravitz. The proceeds from that comedy show ended up being donated to ANERA by the comedian, though many online argued that Swift just went to the show, with the comedian being the sole party responsible for the ANERA donation.
Megyn Kelly, in any case, was furious. She called attention to claim about ANERA made in 2005 by NGO Monitor, noting that ANERA was described then as being highly political and being anti-Israel, which was enough for Kelly to condemn Taylor for going to the comedy concert fundraiser supporting it.
Speaking on that, Kelly first recited the allegations about the charity and said, “A group that NGO Monitor has described as highly political, presenting a highly bias view of the Israel-Palestine war, ignoring any Palestinian responsibility for hardship, and contributing to the demonization of Israel.”
Continuing, she tore into Swift for attending the fundraiser despite the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, saying, “That is the group Taylor Swift thought it might be fun to raise money for, attend a fundraiser for — and she owes Israeli and Jewish Americans an apology!”
She then called for a boycott of Taylor, saying, “And I hope they boycott her events until she issues it! Because attending this thing was wrong. It was wrong. Do some Googling. See what they do in Gaza to gays. See about women’s rights in Gaza, Taylor.”
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Concluding that portion of her rant, Kelly demanded that Swift stay silent about issues she doesn’t know about. Doing so, Kelly made a “zip-it” sign across her lips and added, “Otherwise, do this when it comes to talking about these issues again. You clearly know nothing.”
Andrew Klavan, Kelly’s guest for the rage-filled segment, said that he wishes pop stars would just sing rather than try to make political points. He siad, “She’s a likable pop star, and I guess all I can say about that is I don’t turn to my pop stars for political wisdom. I wish they would shut up and sing.
Watch Kelly and Klavan here:
Broadly, the spat shows the increasingly high tensions between supporters of Israel and supporters of the Palestinians as the shock of the horrific Hamas attack wears off and the videos showing devestation from the Israeli counter-attack show the horrors of modern war.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video