Gene Simmons, the band's lead singer, is an ardent supporter of the Jewish state and excitedly announced it as a stop along an upcoming tour.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, DAVID BRINNKiss performance
Kiss is set to perform in Israel on an upcoming tour, lead singer Gene Simmons wrote in an excited Facebook post announcing the other locations the band will perform in."Leg 1 of the KISS Def Lep Tour is over and ended spectacularly in Houston with a record, sold out concert. Thanks to our road crew for making it all possible. They break their backs every day to put on a show for the fans. But it ain't over. We're just beginning. Europe. South America. Japan. Australia. SE Asia. ISRAEL, and more. We have just begun to rock..."Simmons, the impoverished nine-year-old son of an Auschwitz death camp survivor, was previously known as Chaim Witz and lived in Israel until he was nine-years-old. Even though he had never returned to Israel until 2011, Simmons has always been an ardent supporter of the country, most recently sending a televised message to an IDF soldier (and Kiss fan) wounded during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, in which he called the soldier a “hero.”Although Kiss has never appeared in Israel, Simmons dismissed other entertainers who have chosen to boycott the country as “idiots.”“As an American, there’s no choice but to be supportive of Israel,” he said. “This is the Holy Land, and it’s no secret that everybody in America perceives Israel as its only real friend in the Middle East – who else are you going to rely on? “So when Israelis get touchy because – oops – somebody criticized them, they have to remember that Americans are used to criticizing everybody.You need to develop a tough skin and remember, it’s not what someone says, it’s what they do.“Do you ever doubt that if anything threatened Israel’s existence that the US would come to its defense with all of it nuclear capabilities? I don’t.”According to Simmons, Israel has been a source of pride for him ever since he left.