The cognitive dissonance that must exist in Disturbed frontman David Draiman’s bald ass dome must be staggering. Despite having signed Israeli artillery shells on the frontlines in the war/genocide of Gaza, he claimed in a recent interview that he feels for the Palestinians likely targeted by that very same weaponry.
While chatting with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan on his podcast The Magnificent Others With Billy Corgan, Draiman was asked about the blowback he’s been receiving as a result of his support of Israeli aggression in the Middle East and the photo of him signing munitions. Surprising absolutely no one, he doubles down and parrots key talking points from the Israeli military, the IDF.
“Billy. I would sign every single piece of military equipment in existence if it meant that Hamas was finally eradicated and that the Palestinian people had a real chance at a real future. Extremism is a cancer for anyone, for any part of society or civilization. And they have been raised to hate and slaughter and lust over the murder of Jews since the day they were born. That’s unfortunate.
“There are UN organizations like UNRA who facilitate this hatred, whose schools have teaching material that is pure incitement, that have cartoon characters that glorify the murder of Jews. That whole aspect of society needs to be deradicalized. It’s comparable to what needed to happen to Nazi Germany after World War II. You have an entire group of people who live, breathe, and die for one thing, and that is to to to slaughter Jews. And for anyone to have an issue,
“They always have an issue when you fight back. It’s never… everyone loves dead Jews. Everyone loves persecuted Jews. Everyone loves to feel bad. But God forbid we actually raise our fist to defend ourselves, then we’re the bad guy. You know, the insinuation that every single piece of military equipment that was used in that conflict killed innocents is absolutely preposterous.
“You’re talking about even if you take Hamas’s health ministries numbers at face value, you’re talking about the lowest civilian to combatant ratio in modern warfare history. You’re talking about a war that needed to be waged in an urban environment. In an urban environment where not only is martyrdom glorified, but it’s encouraged and it’s part of the culture.
“You have Palestinian mothers that dream of their sons one day becoming shahed, becoming martyrs, and and it’s a disgusting way to live life. I wish better for them.”
Of course, Draiman speaks in sweeping generalizations about the Palestinian people and couches his stance in the admittedly reasonable feeling that extremism is bad. Yes, it’s true that the UNRWA cartoons are extremely bad and deserve condemnation. But extremism is bad in all forms, Davey-boy. Some would say Israel’s actions over the last couple years have been extreme. Some would even say your fervent regurgitation of Israeli talking points proves you’re a bit on the extreme side of things. Do you deserve to get carpet bombed out of existence? I don’t think so.
Furthermore, no one’s saying Israel doesn’t have a right to defend itself. If it had reacted to the October 7, 2023 terror attack in a targeted, precise manner by targeting just military personnel and Hamas leaders, no one would bat an eye. The problem is when Israel starts shelling, bombing, sniping, rounding up and killing Palestinians en masse. The problem is when a majority of Israeli Jews oppose charging soldiers for the alleged rape of Palestinian prisoners and let soldiers that raped a Palestinian prisoner to return to duty without any real punishment, that’s a fucking problem.
But that’s not to say that he’s not been checked. He famously got in a beef with Kneecap after they called him a cunt for his actions. During his performance at‘Back to the Beginning’, he was met with a sea of boos from the crowd, which he still claims didn’t actually happen. Though he also says that was the result of a bunch of “Jew hating morons.” Disturbed had a show canceled in Belguim because of potential protests because of Draiman’s actions.
During the podcast, Corgan pointed to the Kneecap incident. Naturally, Draiman deflects by saying it’s a result of people thinking Jews aren’t allowed to defend themselves in the public’s eye. Which of course is bullshit, but here’s what he said:
“Of course. Of course. And that’s what everybody will go after after me about. But you know, here’s the thing. Believe it or not, contrary to public opinion, Jews are allowed to fight back. And if there is a genocidal organization on your border who is constantly launching rockets day after day, who’s committing the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust…
“I have calls from my mother crying to me in her safe room, in her bomb shelter as rockets are coming down. I have friends of mine who barely survived the Nova Music Festival massacre because they decided to hide in a pile of garbage while friends of theirs were being raped around them and mutilated, who barely escaped with their lives, who were shot in the process of escape.
“You know, people don’t understand there are human beings behind all of this destruction. There are lives. There’s real consequences. This isn’t some movie. This isn’t some storyline.”
The personal accounts from Draiman, if real, are horrific and should be condemned. Israelis deserve to live just as much as everyone else on the planet. What happened at the Nova Music Festival was atrocious. But so was the Israeli response.
But Draiman was right about one thing — there are real lives and real consequences connected to this whole thing. The Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates about 72,344 killed and about 172,242 injured Palestinians, while the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 378 Israeli fatalities during the conflict (not including those killed in the October 7 attack) and 6,695 injured.
Far too many lives.