Dear Ed Sheeran:

advice for performing artists re: Israel/Palestine/US

SituationPolitics.Com

9/26/202621 min read

Macklemore STRIKES BACK Against The Zionists - Young Turks

Duration 19:36 · Created 2026-09-26

Macklemore was kicked off of Ed Sheeran's tour for saying "free Palestine," which obviously is anti-Semitic, because if you want to free the Palestinians, that means you hate Jews.

Wait, what?

Okay, that's called jumping the shark.

So Robert Kraft, the evil owner of the New England Patriots, forced Ed Sheeran to do that, but then some say, did he?

Or should Ed Sheeran have done the right thing, because a lot of others did.

But guess what, Macklemore now strikes back.

How's he doing that, John?

Let's find out.

Yeah, there's actually updates on both sides of that conflict.

So we're going to start with Macklemore.

He's not on that tour, obviously, basically nobody but Ed Sheeran is.

But Macklemore is actually now planning his own tour, the free Palestine tour.

He announced it on social media just yesterday, going to Dublin, Paris, and London in October.

It's labeled Macklemore and Friends.

In a statement, the rapper said that he had, quote, spent the last week reaching out to artists who've shown up and used their stages to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, regardless of the consequences, though no additional names were announced.

I assume that would come in the next couple of weeks, probably.

He also put out a statement saying, if these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it's that something has shifted over the last three years.

There have been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.

So if you are interested in that, they say that there will also be future dates, possibly including the United States.

So right now, it's a small thing.

If it's successful, perhaps it will grow, and I'm sure a lot of people will be very interested in showing up for that.

That said, Ed Sheeran's tour is having a little bit of difficulty, not a lot of like all the other acts basically left.

I think he had like a fill-in band at one point, but it's not going well, and I think he's feeling the criticism.

He's feeling the pressure.

So before a recent show at the Lincoln Financial Field, he actually addressed the criticism.

Here are some excerpts from that.

I'm used to my music being criticized, and I'm always happy to take that because I'm lucky a lot of you like my stuff, and I'm not surprised that other people don't.

It's normal.

But this week, the criticism was about something much more important, and I've had to take and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I'm so, so sorry.

I don't want to disappoint fans, and I've never wanted to be an activist musician, but this put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.

I am deeply worried about the idea that venues should pre-approve content of performers.

This happens in so many places that I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world.

Now, I want to address the question of where I stand in the situation in Israel and Palestine, and whether my doing this concert here tonight implies where I stand.

I have tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind, because I want my music and shows to be about unity, not division, about humanity, not politics.

But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore.

What happened in Israel and at the Nove Music Festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.

What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.

My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians' lives, of children's lives.

And the systemic injustice we're seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.

So there were like a couple little parts of it where it was worried, like it's, I think he's worried about, I don't know, maybe getting backlash in the same way that Macklemore did.

People declaring that like if you even acknowledge the wildly, he said disproportionate, the wild, wildly disproportionate violence, then I think he's worried about that.

And look, the statement only goes so far.

He doesn't declare it to be a genocide.

He doesn't declare it to be ethnic cleansing.

He doesn't truly identify what's really happening there, but he does say that it's bad, and he does say that he doesn't like the content of the artists having to be pre-approved by the billionaire owners of the stadiums.

And bear in mind, what Macklemore said, free speech anyway, but it was also a very mild statement initially with nuance about how he doesn't want to imply anything about Jewish people or anything like that.

Like he gave the most, what should be even in a sensorious, the safest possible statement.

And so I don't know, I'm glad that Macklemore is doing the tour.

I think Ed Sheeran's statement might placate some people.

I assume there's still going to be a lot of people who are not happy with the final statement, let alone the fact that it only comes a couple weeks later after all the criticism.

What do you think?

Yeah, so ironically, it turns out Ed Sheeran is not going to do the concert at Gillette Stadium anyway.

So I'm going to get to that in a minute.

But first, give you a little bit of background here and talk about, is that good enough from Ed Sheeran?

What should people do, etc.?

So number one, the person who's most guilty here is Robert Kraft.

So he's the one that said, free Palestine.

How dare you treat the Palestinians as human?

No, no, you have to make sure they're enslaved and never free.

You've offended me.

As a Zionist, I get to enslave others.

And if you don't agree to my enslavement, to me enslaving those people, and you want freedom for them, I'm offended.

And so bow kneel, right?

And this is not an exaggeration.

It's a literal cancellation.

You must cancel Macklemore because he wants to free Palestinians.

And I despise Palestinians, and I think they're inferior and should be murdered on a regular basis by the IDF.

Robert Kraft says, now did he say that on tape?

No, he didn't.

Did he say it to Ed Sheeran?

He obviously did, because he said, you better get rid of them for wanting to free the Palestinians.

And Ed Sheeran, let's be honest, said, yes, sir, I prefer to make money, sir, which turned out, by the way, it didn't make you more money.

It made you less money.

Now all of a sudden, he's super sorry because he gave away his humanity and made less money.

Now, if he made more money, maybe he's a little less sorry, right?

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So, okay, I don't really care about Ed Sheeran.

I do care about Robert Kraft.

He's also the guy who, by the way, at Columbia is the one that told the administration, I will cut off your funding.

But remember, they have no control.

They can cancel any concert.

They can cancel any university president.

They could have students that are in favor of peace arrested.

But they have no power.

And who's they?

Radical Zionists who run a thug, I would argue, terrorist network inside this country.

Do they kill people?

Well, we're going to find out in the Tyler Robinson trial.

But let's assume they don't.

But do they terrorize in other ways?

Absolutely.

You ask any Muslim in this country, ask any Arab American, and these days ask any peace protesters, including Jewish Americans.

If you say something against Israel, some terrorist thug shows up and says to your boss, you better fire him, otherwise you're going to destroy your whole business.

Some mafioso prick who's a Zionist who says, I am offended, unless you destroy everyone who is opposed to Israel.

I am offended, and my feelings are worth more than all the Palestinian children in the world.

And then we have to care about your feelings?

Do I have to care about Robert Kraft's feelings?

Okay, so I went to a Mo Amir show at Dana last week.

He's a great comic, and he pointed out something I didn't know.

It's really interesting.

You know how Robert Kraft bought the Patriots?

And then after the show, I went and looked it up.

I'm like, is that true?

Oh my God, right?

He did this.

Well, you can say it's a smart business strategy.

What he did was he bought all the land around the Gillette Stadium, and he started choking off the profits of the Patriots because he had the parking lot rights.

Then he wound up getting the concession rights, and he wound up getting all the property around it.

And the property had clauses in the contracts that didn't allow the Patriots to move to a different stadium.

So he totally cornered the owner of the Patriots and snuffed the business out of them so that he could take it for himself.

Okay, so, okay, by the way, you could say that's savvy, and he paid a good price.

And by the way, look, I'm fair as show in America.

He did a good job with the Patriots, got them a lot of championships.

They stayed in New England.

I get it.

But does he do dirty stuff to get business deals?

Of course he does.

And when he wants to eliminate someone, whether they're peace protesters at Columbia or Macklemore, he just has to snap his fingers and they get eliminated.

And so now, though, he's like, man, before we kill off your career in the middle of the night, and the media would say you deserved it, and you were a disgusting anti-Semite, and your life should be absolutely ruined.

And everybody in media that I also pay, well, me and my buddies, right?

And we actually, my buddies bought the media.

Larry Ellison's one of his buddies.

Rupert Murdoch's another buddy.

They own like 40, 50% of media, just those two, right?

So I'll get them to do propaganda and destroy you in every way.

But I'm the victim.

Is Robert Kraft the victim?

Billionaire owner of the Israeli Patriots, he's the victim?

No, no, he's the thug.

He's the aggressor.

He's the person terrorizing any American who disagrees with Israel and trying to take away their rights, their livelihood, and everything from them, because no one's allowed to disagree with Israel.

By the way, on Ed Sheeran, BB Junkie is a YouTube member here on the Young Turks channel.

Hit the join button, be part of the show.

He made a good point.

He said, notice how he has to read from a teleprompter, not genuine.

I thought the same thing as Ed Sheeran was reading.

Look, I get it.

Your PR person's going to write it, and I get it that you're going to want to get the words right, because, oh my God, everybody's going to catch feelings like everyone else on earth will get mad at you if you minimize the 23,000 dead kids.

And the Israelis will rip your head off if you accidentally say something that's true.

Like if he slipped up and he wasn't using a prompter and he said genocide or slaughter or murder or something, they'd be like, how dare you?

You're permanently canceled your anti-Semite.

We have no control.

We have no control at all.

I mean, I own the stadium and I literally canceled you, but I'm the victim.

And talk to others in the same class to try to have that happen at other stadiums too.

Yeah, the teleprompter bothered me a little bit too.

I get it.

It's a really high stakes thing considering the position he's in.

But one would hope that you would know enough about the situation and have the thoughts that you could just express them.

Yeah, no, look, I'm not stuck on the prompter, but it was, yeah, it goes to the authenticity.

All right, last couple of things here.

So why did he not play at Gillette Stadium anyway?

Well, there's this crazy Northeaster coming, right?

So it turns out the weather was going to cancel.

The storm is coming.

Yeah, it's here.

So it turns out he wasn't going to do the Gillette show anyway, right?

But if you say, well, you see, he did it for nothing.

Not exactly right.

Remember, Robert Kraft had called the other NFL owners who also are radical Zionists, also coincidence.

And they also said, no, no one is allowed to ever say anything nice about Palestinians.

Otherwise, we destroy their career.

So they banded together to take away the rights of every American, not just Palestinians, not Arabs or Muslims.

Macklemore, last I checked, wasn't an Arab, okay?

I don't know his background at all.

I don't either.

But it doesn't matter.

Your rights gone.

Israel wants those rights.

You better give them up, you anti-Semite.

Okay, which leads me to the last point, which is free Palestine.

If you're a Zionist out there and you're offended by the words free Palestine, you've lost your mind and you don't know it.

You're in a cult and you don't know it.

Please have your family and friends intervene, do an intervention for you.

If the freedom of others bothers you, we don't have to give a crap about your feelings, because what you're announcing to the world is, I'm the bad guy.

I'm a person who's deeply immoral and would like to take away the freedom of a racial group and a religious group.

I'd like to take it away forever, and I'd like to have them live under my oppression.

The Knesset voted that way, and you're not objecting to anything but the words free Palestine.

So you think freeing the Palestinians offends you?

That means you're the bad guy.

That means you're immoral to the point where I would argue if you believe in the concept of evil, if you're bothered by the freedom of other human beings, you are evil.

So don't come to me with, oh my God, if I don't get to murder Palestinian children, then I feel like, oh, you're being anti-Semitic.

If you weren't anti-Semitic, you would realize that the Israelis are superior and get to murder anyone they like.

I can't believe you're not in favor of murdering and enslaving people.

Now, why do I do those histrionics?

Because everyone in media is like, they're offended.

They're offended.

And the kids are dead.

They're dead.

23,000 dead.

Yeah, but who cares?

They're just Palestinians, says every cable news anchor in their actions and in their deeds.

But the minute you offend a Zionist, heaven forbid, the Zionists are offended.

No, no, no, please let them murder.

Murder.

Give me your money.

Goddamn it, give me your wallet.

Give me your wallet.

Stupid anti-Semite American.

You can't give that to me.

You're already fired.

Shut up.

Okay, Israel, here's 2.8 billion more.

This is literal just happened.

2.8 billion more for 40,000 bombs.

They're all 2,000 pound bombs.

Those are genocide bombs.

And they just stole that money from us.

Stole it.

No congressional approval.

And just giving it to Israel because Trump said so.

Wildly unconstitutional, wildly illegal.

During a ceasefire.

And by the way, while Congress is in recess, there are no rules.

They're just robbing us.

And if anyone complains about the robbery, they call them an anti-Semite and try to squeeze the life out of them while pretending to be victims.

We've had enough of their BS victimhood.

Now the latest thing, sorry, I'm going off.

I wasn't here for the Netanyahu speech.

And he says, oh, this Muslim Mamdani, how dare he, right?

Jews don't feel safe.

This is their latest, I can't curse, BS, okay?

So no, no, no, no.

There's no, oh, Jews don't feel safe.

That's propaganda, okay?

Unless I get to murder your kids, I don't feel safe.

Well, then you shouldn't feel safe because you're a weirdo evil person telling me how it's no big deal to murder the kids.

No big deal to murder the kids.

But I don't feel safe.

I'm the only important person.

I'm the only relevant person.

Oh, I already murdered your children and made you pay for it.

Who cares?

Not safe.

You already murdered.

You want to murder more?

Not safe.

I don't feel safe unless you give me more money to murder more Palestinian children and Lebanese children and Iranian children and Syrian children.

I don't feel safe.

My ass.

Unless they get every single thing they want for Israel, they're going to use every trick in the book.

I don't feel safe.

I'm offended.

Good, good.

I hope I offend you 10,000 times more.

So, John, here's a simple rule.

In case you say, hey, Jay, no, wait, wait, you're going too fine.

It's just kids.

I know they're dead, but who cares?

You're being too loud, right?

You're being too great.

All right, guys, if somebody says to me, Jay, you're right, the 23,000 kids is an outrage and we can't give them any more money or bombs.

2,000 pound bombs.

Are you crazy?

That blows up the entire civilian apartment building.

The shrapnel kills everybody within a thousand yards.

No, no, no, no.

I'm against the bombs.

I'm against giving Israel any more money.

You're totally right about what happened.

But hey, I also feel offended.

I go, oh, well, now I'm having a conversation.

Now I'll listen to you.

Okay, what are you offended by?

But if you say, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't mind killing the kids.

In fact, I want more of your money to kill more kids, but I'm offended.

No, no deal.

Don't give a damn.

In fact, I'm actually kind of really happy you're offended.

Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings.

Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.

ED, you could decide to go against your booking agency's wishes and do what you want on your stage at your gigs.

You could go on the offensive and lawyer up with some great lawyers to enter communications with your booking agency - starting with putting them on legal notice that if they cancel your contracts or gigs due to their anti-Free Speech demands, you will sue them in federal court and win.

You could make an example out of billionaire anti-Free Speech bullies for everyone to see.

Thomas Jefferson said, the answer or solution to free speech that you don't like is not to stifle, but to RESPOND IN KIND.

Ed, you need to assert your American First Amendment rights and RESPOND IN KIND!

What's the worst thing that could happen?

You go home with $400 million? and start your own booking agency or use a different agency.

I'm sure you won't be on food rations and you'll be just fine.

No one can take your fans away from you EXCEPT BY YOUR ACTIONS.

Ed Sheeran apologizes for 'making mistakes,' says situation in Gaza is 'unjustifiable'

Duration 03:15 · Created 2026-09-27

Um, this is not usually how I would open the show, but before I play some songs tonight, I hope it's okay if I say a few words about this last week.

I'm used to my music being criticized, and I'm always happy to take that, because I'm lucky a lot of you like my stuff.

I'm not surprised that other people don't, you know, it's normal.

But this week the criticism was about something much more important, and I've had to take, uh, and make difficult decisions, and I am making mistakes, and I'm so, so sorry.

I don't want to disappoint fans, and I've never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet.

My concerts have always been a safe space for everyone, and that matters hugely to me.

Honoring my commitment to my fans is also completely central to who I am, and that is why I'm here tonight, on my own, and continuing my current tour.

But I am, I am deeply worried about the idea that venues should pre-approve content of performers.