Daniel Barenboim. Photo: Wikipedia.

Last week, Aditya Chakrabortty of The Guardian interviewed Israeli (or to be more accurate, Israeli and Palestinian, conductor) Daniel Barenboim for the Classical Music section of the paper.

In his article, headlined “Daniel Barenboim on ageing, mistakes and why Israel and Iran are twin brothers,” Chakrabortty included political views that would have been more at home in an opinion piece than the Classical Music section.

Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a mix of Israeli and Arab musicians, which played at the London Proms last week, prompting a five-star review by the Guardian’s Andrew Clements. The review was delightfully free of politics.

Barenboim’s interview with Chakrabortty goes into how and why the Orchestra came together in the first place, the perfectionist that Barenboim is, and how hard he works his musicians; it also questions whether the Orchestra is actually achieving anything positive.

Then the interview enters its gratuitous political mode. After describing the insults Barenboim received after playing Wagner — the Nazis’ favorite composer — in Israel, Chakrabortty writes:

For his part, the musician has called the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank “immoral” and backed a boycott of the Israeli government.

I fail to see any connection between playing Wagner in Israel and what happens in Gaza and the West Bank, but, for the record, Gaza is certainly not occupied since Israel withdrew in 2005. The European Court of Human Rights has said so and even Hamas, which is in full control of Gaza, admits it. Hamas has even been showing off how nice Gaza actually is.

I will give Barenboim the benefit of the doubt that he may have been referring, in error, to Israel’s legal naval blockade of Gaza, but even then ships can dock at Ashdod and have goods transferred overland to Gaza after security checks.

And what did Barenboim mean when he “backed a boycott of the Israeli government”? This is the government Israelis voted in. Barenboim is proposing boycotting their democratic decision.

Chakrabortty writes that Barenboim holds “both Israeli and Palestinian nationalities,” so why is Barenboim not calling for a boycott of the Palestinian government with its incitement against Jews via its prime minister and official television outlet?

For Israel’s enemies, “a boycott of the Israeli government” actually means a boycott of anyone who receives Israeli government support, which is why so few Israeli artists have visited the UK in recent years after the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011, Israel’s national theater company in 2012, and Israel’s youth dance company also in 2012, had their London performances viciously interrupted by anti-Israel protesters.

Does Barenboim support these disruptions?

The interview then discusses Barenboim’s attempts to take his Orchestra to Tehran. Barenboim states:

The Iranian government still denies the Holocaust – so you can’t take them seriously. And the Israeli government spreads rumours and disinformation about Iran – because it needs to for the creation of panic. I find these theological states – and in this respect Israel and Iran are twin brothers – very, very dangerous.

Again, what is the connection? How can Barenboim seriously equate Holocaust denial from a government that hangs gays with Israeli politics?

Let me provide the following possible explanation.

Anyone who plays Wagner at Israel’s premier music festival in Jerusalem and, in doing so, causes so much hurt and pain to Holocaust survivors, will have no qualms selling out Israel in such a way to the Guardian.