Roger Waters Israel - Syd Barrett Blog Denounces Waters

Roger Waters Israel

The Syd Barrett Pink Floyd Blog denounces former Pink Floyd Member, Roger Waters', stand on Israel as inaccurate and anti-Semitic. In as short and simple terms as possible, below is our explanation.
First, the Jewish people require a Homeland. As guest citizens of the many countries where they have lived, they have always greatly contributed to the culture, economy and way of life where they have been citizens. Still, this always hasn't worked out well for them and the Jewish people have been the victims of well-documented persecution throughout the ages.
Comparatively recently, they endured the Holocaust, or Shoah, where Nazi Germany instituted industrial murder of people that they deemed "unworthy". In all, twelve million people were killed including six million Jews, representing most of Europe's Jews and two-thirds of the Jewish population of the world. After years of wholesale murder of their people in Europe, the Jewish people could not continue as "guest citizens" anywhere anymore.

Roger Waters Israel

Little by little, survivors of shattered families moved to their spiritual Homeland, Palestine. By 1949, there were enough Jews in Palestine to affect change and form a government. There is a lot of talk today from some that the Jews "stole" the land from the "Palestinians". It should be known that there were no "Palestinians" in 1949. There were Bedouins who roamed the desert. There was no government; Palestine was overseen by the British.
There had been Jews living in Palestine since Biblical times. Many of these sold, or donated, their land to the creation of a Jewish State. There were Arab land owners who were eager to sell, what was considered wasteland, to the effort for the creation of a Jewish State. The British, eager to leave Palestine after Word War II, allocated land to the creation of a Jewish State after a brief armed struggle. Ultimately, the United Nations stepped in a created a Resolution, taking all of the purchased, donated and allocated land, created the Jewish State - Israel. The surrounding Arab countries, the British, the Jews AND the Bedouins (Palestinians) all agreed to UN Resolution.

Roger Waters Israel

Shortly after the agreement of the leaders of all parties concerned, and the UN Resolution, the group that became known as "the Palestinians" pulled out their support. This began the decades long struggle by the Palestinians dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. This struggle has been, almost always, expressed with terrorist actions.
In addition to the terrorist activities, there have been several wars including two where all of the Arab countries surrounding Israel attacked and made bold proclamations to "drive the Jews into the sea". In all these wars Israel was victorious and did seize some land. Much of this land was given back, in an effort to secure peace, a small part of the land has been occupied for security purposes. In many of the peace agreements with the surrounding Arab countries, the Arab proponents for peace with Israel were ultimately assassinated by radical elements of their own population.
Recently, there has been another "Land for Peace" deal where Israel gave back land to the Palestinians in return for solemn vows of "peace forever". This land was for a Palestinian Homeland. This hasn't worked out well for Israel. In Gaza, one of the "Land for Peace" areas, in their first democratic elections, the Palestinians threw out the moderates and elected the radical terrorist group Hamas as their "government". This began the years of using the land, given for peace, as a staging area for terrorist attacks and fire rockets into Israel.

Roger Waters Israel

In 2005, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (and referred to in this post as BDS) was started. Terrorism hadn't been effective for the Palestinians; Israel was stronger than ever. Taking a note from South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, BDS seeks to compare the situation in Israel to South Africa under apartheid. BDS actually disinclines further negotiation between Palestine organizations and Israel while simultaneously hearkening back to anti-Semitic boycotts of Jewish businesses while seeking to de-legitimize Israel.
Roger Waters is a very vocal supporter of BDS. He has used his fame as a platform to shine a favorable light on BDS while talking about Israel, and the Jewish people, in derogatory and sometimes disgusting ways. To date, Roger Waters has called for a boycott of Israel and has even spoken before the United Nations on behalf of BDS. He has put the Star of David on the rear end of his inflatable pig that he flies at concerts. The Star of David is the primary symbol of Judaism and also appears on Israel’s flag. The "pig" can also be seen as derogatory because the Jewish religion refutes the eating of swine. It can even be said that the placement of the Star of David, on the pig's ass, is deliberate.

Roger Waters Israel

In a supreme act of (at the very least) callousness, Roger Waters has repeatedly compared Israel to Germany under the Nazis. To the Jewish people this is, quite understandably, the ultimate insult. Almost all of the Jewish people today have family members who died in the Holocaust; many had entire branches of their families wiped out. The writer of this blog post used to work with a man whose father was the sole surviving member of both sides of his family. To compare Israel to the Nazis is beyond inflammatory and is likening them to the murderers of their people.
It is an absurd comparison too, Arabs and Jews live in the same neighborhoods in Israel and mix freely at the same stores, restaurants, movie theaters and hospitals. Most importantly, there are no government pogroms to round up and systematically murder the Arab population.
The idea that Israel is an apartheid state is a staple of Waters' (and BDS') argument. The comparison to apartheid South Africa is absurd as well. In apartheid South Africa, it controlled every aspect of life there; the school one attended, the work one did, where people lived, hospitals and ambulances were segregated, interracial marriage was forbidden. One could even face arrest for sitting on the wrong park bench.
More than twenty-percent of Israelis are Arab and have full voting rights. Arabs are found in Israel's military and diplomatic corps. Seventeen members of the Israeli Knesset (the Parliament) are Arab as well as one member of the country's Supreme Court. In Israeli hospitals and clinics, Jewish and Arab physicians and nurses work together to provide care equally to all patients. BDS is not stupid, for them to propagate this comparison under "human rights" is both cynical and manipulative. Waters, announces that Israel is an "apartheid state" constantly and ceaselessly but that doesn't make it true; it makes Waters (at the very least) ill-informed.

Roger Waters Israel

Roger Waters has made a public spectacle of writing "open" letters to artists and performers scheduled to appear in Israel urging them to back out of their commitment. Most recently, he has gotten into a public skirmish with the British rock group Radiohead. It should be noted that the number of artists and performers who support Israel far outweigh those few who don't. Currently Radiohead, Nick Cave, Fatboy Slim, Robbie Williams, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Rod Stewart and The Pixies have confirmed gigs in Israel.
He has commented that other musicians are afraid of the "control" of the Jews in the US. His life's mission is boycotting Israel, but when people try to return the favor and boycott him he then goes into the classic anti-Semitic rant about how the Jews are trying to control everyone.

Roger Waters Israel

Roger Waters has accused Israel of being the worst regime in the world. He falsely accuses Israel of attempted genocide and slaughter. He refuses to acknowledge other countries that are literally gassing their own citizens. He refuses to acknowledge atrocities in the world. Instead he focuses solely and falsely on Israel. It is noteworthy that while he claims that he is not an anti-Semite, and that he only has a problem with Israel, has made a number of anti-Semitic comments.
This writer finds it odd that Waters' father died fighting Fascism and yet he is anti-Israel himself. The destruction of the Jewish people was one of the supreme tenants to the Nazi regime and the State of Israel is living proof of the defeat of Fascism in World War II. This writer's own father fought in WWII (Japanese) and returned home with (undiagnosed) PTSD that affected him for the rest of his life.
This writer heard tales from his Aunts about his Father the avid hunter and hell raiser around town. That's not the man this writer knew. This writer's father was a pacifist who hated guns and violence. He spent a lot of time in his room, didn't like large crowds, couldn't be woken from sleep without screaming.
This writer's dad wholly supported Israel, as did his mother, and they educated this writer about why that support was so important. This writer's parents also educated him about the destruction of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis, the need for a Jewish State and that Israel is the living proof of the defeat of the Nazis. To this writer, it's odd that Waters' own father died, fighting the same fight against Fascism, and Waters seems to "deny" something so fundamental about Israel, the Jewish State.

Roger Waters Israel

Finally, this writer asks Roger Waters to imagine a line separating the supporters of Israel and the detractors of Israel. Waters should take a look on "his" side of the line and see what company he's keeping. Other of Israel's detractors are "fine" civics organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and the Aryan Nation. One will also find "peaceful and democratic" countries like Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and more. Roger Waters will see "upstanding citizens" such as David Duke, American Nazi Leader - Matt Koehl, skinheads, racist and others. Waters should look at the company he's keeping in his quest; they are all cheering him on.
It is this writer's opinion that Roger Waters is, sadly, the dupe of the latest ploy by the Palestinians to take down Israel; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. He uses his cultural platform to advance a movement whose own stated ultimate goal is the destruction of the Jewish State. He also uses his support of BDS as a "cloak" while he expresses his own vile and hateful views.
Therefore, this Syd Barrett Pink Floyd blog denounces Roger Waters. Waters is trying to actively "undo" one of the key outcomes, in the defeat of Fascism, of World War II. He is disrespecting the ultimate sacrifice of his own father. Finally, this writer hates that Waters politicized Pink Floyd in this way; it's like smearing a picture of a beautiful sunset with feces.

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