By Elizabeth Volberding, OAN Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Rapper Kanye West apologized to the Jewish community online following his anti-Semitic remarks throughout the years where he has previously expressed his support for Adolf Hitler.
On Tuesday, 46-year-old West apologized to the Jewish community in a social media post, which was written in Hebrew, after he had criticized “powerful” Jewish individuals several times on various online platforms.
“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions, it was not my intention to hurt or disrespect, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused,” West wrote. “I am committed to starting with myself and learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future. Your forgiveness is important to me, and I am committed to making amends and promoting unity.”
The rapper’s various anti-Semitic outbursts during the past year have consisted of him voicing his support for Adolf Hitler, which ended in him losing several lucrative endorsement agreements with large companies and being executed from his talent agency.
Additionally, West made other anti-Semitic statements last year, including saying that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” and saying, “I like Hitler,” to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Earlier this month, he was filmed blaming people for being behind his downfall and yelling, “Jesus Christ, Hitler, Ye.” His apology on Tuesday did not include any mention of this specific incident.
The rapper’s anti-Semitic messages have been widely denounced, even by his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, who expressed that she “stood with the Jewish community” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
West’s anti-Semitic expressions led to multiple well-known brands cutting ties with him, including Adidas. This resulted in the termination of his Yeezy sneaker collaboration with the brand.
Adidas later announced that it donated a portion of the proceeds from the Yeezy sneaker line to charities including the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.
So West is playing a trick, taking a page out of Arafat’s book. Arafat told Bill Clinton in a letter that the PNC had repealed the call for the destruction of Israel from it’s charter but all he had done was have them create a committee to revise the charter at a future date which never came. In the same way, American Jews will never read what he actually said. They will read a second hand report in some gullible liberal Jewish magazine that said that he apologized without going into detail.
@Peloni
Especially the Israeli Jewish community. How many American Jews even understand modern Hebrew?
@Senbastien
And this is an important point to raise.
Kanye’s influence is not with the Jewish community. Rather, the damage done to the Jewish community was with the result of Kanye’s influence with the likes of Candace Owens, who thinks Arabs have been kept in humble abodes withinin the Arab slave quarters in Jerusalem. Indeed, it is the ignorant who were likely most suggestible to the lies and slanders which Kanye manipulated into being presented as dependable truths, simply to vilify the Jews for being Jews. So too those who know better but find that such slanders by a pop star will suit their preferred model of abuse upon the Jews.
As he did so with his frank abuses of the Jews, Kanye should clarify in the same language the actual details upon which his apology is based. Notably, he failed to do more than generalize his apology without actually amending a single defamatory remark he originally made.
Until he apologizes in English on platforms African-Americans and Muslims read and listen to, his apology is meaningless and he should never be un-cancelled. And he should never be un-cancelled unless Roseane Barr, who apologized to no avail, is uncanceled, as well.
We are too quick to forgive insincere, unrepentant opportunists trying to get ahead and attain or restore positions of power and influence. Jesse Kackson, Mel Gibson, Obama, Whoopie Goldberg, Arafat, should never have been forgiven.
@Raphael
Yes, well that is built into the calculus that he is mentally unstable which I believe does apply to Kanye.
@peloni1986
Even though I said that Kanye West should be given the benefit of the doubt, I also think the chances of him relapsing are high.
@Peloni I concur on your Kanye West views!
@Raphael
I would add that Kanye has done a great deal of damage to the Jewish community, demonized them unfairly, doubling down and tripping down on his antisemitic rants which went on over the course of more than a year. A single mea culpa is no remedy for the harms he has knowingly, willfully, and apologetically (prior to this) done. It is, however, perhaps an important first step on a campaign which might bridge some of the damage which he has done.
@ketzel2
You raise a very well made point as well, comparing him to a domestic abuser, running hot and cold in alteration. Time will tell if he is able to break this trend once and for all. To be honest, I have come to believe that this man is altogether mentally unbalanced, so we shall see.
People on Twitter have commented that Kanye is about to release a new album. That’s the explanation for his apology. I don’t accept it. It’s easy to apologise, but he has a long history of riling up his antisemitic fans. He’s like a domestic abuser, alternating between abuse and apology. This is far from the first round of this, so don’t be fooled.
Carl Goldberg:
What is “google translate” for?
Kanye West is a complicated man, and one, perhaps, who does not always think out the full implications of what he says or does. That said, how many people are man enough (or woman enough) to stand up in public and say that they made a mistake, let alone someone with the notoriety of Kanye West? I hope that the Jewish community will accept Mr. West’s apology. That doesn’t mean that he must be embraced, but perhaps a certain amount of rapproachment would help him understand and appreciate Israel, and the Jewish people, better. Kanye West is potentially a bridge to communities that Jews might not otherwise be able to reach with their message. As long as Kanye West is holding out the olive branch, he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
“unintended outburst…” HA
Apologized in Hebrew!? Why doesn’t he apologize in English so that all of his followers can see it?