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This is no hard rock bank on this video. It's pure patriotic American, but it reflects the views of Gene Simmons, the guy who put it on. When you think of hard rock bands like KISS co-founded by Gene Simmons (Israeli-born Chaim Weitz), the image of a traditional, ethical, "do-as-I-say (but not necessarily as I do) loving family man does not immediately come to mind—particularly when you think of Simmons as the KISS lead singer. Nor does the image of a pro-US military patriotic conservative come to mind.

Simmons' mother, Florence Klein (originally Kovacs) was a Hungarian Jew. She and her brother Larry were the only two members of her family to survive the Holocaust. They migrated to Israel where Florence married Hungarian-born Jew, Feri Weitz. In Israel, they were dirt poor. Florence wanted more for her son. She wanted him raised in the United States. Weitz refused to consider such a move. In the end, he moved out. Florence took Chaim to the United States in 1957. Weitz remained in Israel where he died a few years ago.

In New York, Florence took her maiden name and even renamed her son Eugene (Gene) Klein believing he would fare better with an American name. In 1960 Gene Klein changed his name to Gene Simmons. In the summer of 2011, Simmons' 28-year girlfriend Shannon Tweed (who married Simmons on Oct. 1, 2011) convinced him to visit Israel. Unbeknownst to Simmons, he had a half-brother (Kobi Weitz) and triplet half-sisters (Drona, Ogenia and Sharon) waiting to meet him. Simmons now partially supports them.

The long and short of it is, unlike most American Jews, Simmons is avidly pro-Israel, avidly pro-American and most of all, avidly pro-US military. You tend to expect that more from traditional red-white-and-blue country music singers, not from pothead acid-rock band members. (Simmons, however, claims he has never done drugs and doesn't drink liquor.)

On Aug. 15, 2012, A&E canceled its long-running reality series, Gene Simmons Family Jewels after seven seasons. An audience decline of 65%, probably caused by Simmons and Tweed going to a psychiatrist, resulting in audience disinterest—and the show's cancellation. When the demonic hard rock singer turned out to be "Father Knows Best," the rocker audience moved on. Myself, I like the pro-military, married, pro-American conservative rocker (even though I could never stand, nor listen to, his music). That's why, if you love your country, you'll love Gene Simmons' Military Tribute.


In April, 2003, when the antiwar rocker groups joined forces with the social progressive left and attacked the Bush Administration's war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gene Simmons attacked the liberals in the entertainment industry.

Simmons said he was "...ashamed to be surrounded by people calling themselves liberals who are, in my opinion, spitting on the graves of brave Americans who gave their lives to fight a war that wasn't theirs...in a country they've never been to...simply to liberate the people there." On his website, he added, "If you don't have the guts to stand up to injustice, where ever it exists (and that meant stopping the Germans, the Japanese and the Italians in WWI and WWII...or the Albanian Serbs in Bosnia...or the tragedies that keep occurring in Africa...or even the Vietnam War...Panama...North Korea...the list goes on and on)...one thing in common with all those events: America didn't stay and 'conquer' any of those countries."

As the Hollywood elite attacked the Bush policy of retaliating against those who declared war on the United States—on US soil, and attacked the American fighting man—and woman—as they came home in body bags, or with IVs in their arms, struggling for life, Simmons paid a tribute to those fighting men with a number of shows to honor all of the branches of service in the US military. One of those tributes is featured here. But they date back to an A&E presentation on May 28, 2007. Simmons did a tribute to the Coast Guard in April, 2003. The video above is dated Nov. 10, 2008. It may be the various tributes after the A&E showing are clips from that tribute. It doesn't matter. They are good—and the American men and women who fight and die to protect their nation and, as Simmons' puts it in this video, "This is about America. It's about God. And, it's about country." And, if you don't know that, you're living in the wrong country.

 

 

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