B’nai B’rith slams Roger Waters
Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has denounced a letter penned by former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters to Bon Jovi slamming the band for refusing to join his cultural boycott of Israel and going ahead with their concert in Tel Aviv.
In 2014, Waters urged the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and Alan Parsons to cancel their tours in Israel.
Dvir Abramovich
Parts of the letter by Waters read, “Often in the past I have written detailed, and sometimes even persuasive, letters to colleagues in the music business, encouraging them not to give succor to the Israeli government’s apartheid policies by performing in Israel. Having read Jon’s comments last week in Yedioth Ahronoth, I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.”
In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Bon Jovi stated, “I always heard what a wonderful place Israel is – the birthplace of all religions. I have been everywhere and Israel was a place that I’ve always wanted to visit, but it never worked out. This time I insisted that Israel must be on our list and it happened!”.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement: “Roger Waters is a leading advocate for the antisemitic BDS campaign against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle-East, so we are not surprised by his latest tirade.
In fact, Waters has a terrible record of anti-Israel statements. We should not forget that in 2013, during his performance in Belgium, a giant pig balloon emblazoned with a Jewish Star of David floated above the audience and that in 2010 he used the Star of David imagery in a concert, followed by dollar signs in the song “Good Bye Blue Sky”.
Waters also claimed that Hamas desires “permanent peace with Israel, and has compared Israel with Nazi Germany and Vichy France. Earlier this year, while promoting his film ‘Roger Waters The Wall’, the singer equated the Nazis with those who fought to defeat them when he stated, “I hope these worldwide screenings this coming September 29 will be a good opportunity to remember, not just our fallen loved ones, but all the other guys’ fallen loved ones. Ashes and diamonds foe and friend we were all equal in the end.” We are heartened that Bon Jovi rebuffed the promotion by Waters of his cultural boycott of Israel and urge other entertainers to call out those who continue to degrade, incite and spew hatred against Israel in furtherance of their twisted and bigoted cause.”
Unfortunately Erica, your claim that “nobody of any substance will take any notice of a moron like Waters” isn’t quite true. He has successfully persuaded several influential performers to boycott their tour of Israel. I have followed the career of Pink Floyd throughout the years (I even saw Waters’ masterpiece “The Wall” performed live in London in 1979). He has several obsessions, one of which is the erection of any sort of “wall” around any human beings. He became exceedingly angry when he learnt that Israel had placed a wall around belligerent Arab communities at the height of the suicide bombings campaign several years ago. No Jew would be happy to have a wall built around any group of people – echoes of ghettoes & camps. However, it was the only way to prevent the almost daily atrocities back in the 90’s. It actually worked. It’s Ok for Waters to sit in his comfort in the UK and demand that Israel “bring down the wall”, but what does he propose in its place? Nothing but boycotts. Yes, he is an idiot because he is blinded by his total disinterest in Israeli casualties. You can be critical of a government policy, but at least come up with a workable alternative – especially when you are one of the biggest international money earners of 2014.
Thanks for your reply, Ron. Fortunately earning big money doesn’t guarantee a place in heaven! – but “performing” good and honorable deeds most probably does. Waters may have his obsessions but at the end of the day his idiocy will be seen for what it is – idiocy. Let’s hope there will be less “navel-gazing” in the next few months and some real action that will sort the hares from the hounds…..
Further to my previous comments regarding the abandonment of reason by supposedly rational, educated people, mention must be made of the British “The Guardian” newspaper’s reporter who was challenged about a blatant lie which he published about Israel.
The journalist’s reply will go down in infamy: he replied, ” I lied in the name of a higher truth.”
That is now standard journalistic practice.
I don’t know if Waters is an “uneducated idiot,” but Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist certainly is not. And yet, the genius, Hawking, boycotted a conference in Israel, giving as his reason that “I received an email from my ‘Palestinian’ friends.”
This man, who is trained in scientific, rational, rigorous evidence-based thinking where science is concerned, suddenly became just another Roger Waters where Israel is concerned. He did not bother to investigate, consider evidence, test the claims of the enemy, seek out an opposing view, in short, he behaved not like a modern scientist, but like a witchdoctor.
Why?
What role in his total abandonment of rationality was played by the 2,000 year-old conditioning of Western society to regard Jews in a particular way?
Many of the top Nazi leaders were holders of doctorates, unlike Roger Waters, but did their education inhibit their monstrous thinking and actions?
At The University of Sydney, the “academic’ staff of the Peace and Conflict Centre
no doubt claim that they act rationally and morally.
When you stop laughing at that claim, consider what motivates them to bear such vicious hostility to us.
While currently Israeli Jews are murdered in broad daylight by Arabs, many of the “educated” “journalists” who report on the events attack Israelis for defending themselves when they shoot knife-wielding murderers.
Good
Champions B’nai B’rith! Keep on keeping the bastards honest. But quite honestly this man sounds like we shouldn’t really be bothered by him. There are enough honest, intelligent, well-meaning, adult, and community-spirited, pro-Israel people in this world to be the un-doing of un-educated idiot like Waters. At the end of the day, nobody of any substance will take any notice of a moron like Waters.