Gene Simmons slams Israel boycott movement

KISS musician Gene Simmons slammed the boycott movement. This makes me appreciate that band so much more. Simmons made his first trip back to Israel since his childhood.

"I'm Israeli. I'm a stranger in America. I'm an outsider," he said, speaking in a hotel lobby across a valley from the walls of Jerusalem's historic Old City. "I was born here and I'm proud of it."

He said artists who avoid Israel - such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies and Roger Waters, who joined the movement after appearing in Israel in 2006 - would be better served directing their anger at Arab dictators.

"The countries they should be boycotting are the same countries that the populations are rebelling," he said. "People long to be free ... And they sure as hell don't want somebody who's a ruler who hasn't been elected by them."

Simmons was making his first return to Israel since he left the country as a child more than 50 years ago.