Times of Israel..
15 December '13..
The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is the most prominent anti-Israel movement in the West. It is neither a peace movement nor an anti-occupation movement. It is a movement that supports the destruction of the State of Israel in order to establish a single state in its stead. The BDS movement’s leaders declare this openly and publicly. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame has in recent years become one of BDS’s most important and celebrated spokespeople. Waters gives frequent interviews to explain his position. It is important to pay attention to what he says in order to expose how this industry of lies works.
In an interview he gave a few days ago, Waters explained his hostile position towards Israel, stating that certain right-wing rabbis in Israel “believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them and they believe that the indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are subhuman. The parallels with what went on in the 30s in Germany are so crushingly obvious that it doesn’t surprise me that the movement that both you and I are involved in is growing every day.”
This is a fascinating claim that bears exploring. First of all, Waters is right. There are some rabbis on Israel’s extreme right who hold racist and fascist views. In the 2013 elections, the extreme rightist party, of whose two members only one is considered to hold extremist views, did not gain enough votes to enter the Knesset. In other words, that view is not even represented in Israel’s parliament. The voters booted it out. And even the views of that MK are a far cry from those of a few extremist rabbis. So how exactly did Waters manage to make the leap from a handful of radical rabbis to a comparison to Nazi Germany?
Let’s continue. The most important Muslim denomination, the Sunna, has a major theologian who appears weekly on Al-Jazeera. His name is Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi, like Waters, is one of the most important advocates of the BDS movement – perhaps even more important than Waters. And that same Qaradawi has made it clear that he admires Hitler, expressing the hope that “next time the Muslims will finish the job.” Interestingly enough, Waters knows about a handful of racist rabbis but has completely missed the most important and best-known authority in Sunni Islam, although they bear such a strong resemblance to one another: They both harbor similar views on Israel and are members of the same global movement.
Does that make Waters an anti-Semite? The Pink Floyd Star maintains that, “The Jewish lobby is extraordinarily powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll as they say. I promise you, naming no names, I’ve spoken to people who are terrified that if they stand shoulder to shoulder with me they are going to get fucked. They have said to me ‘Aren’t you worried for your life’ and I go ‘No, I’m not.’”
Should Waters be believed when he says his colleagues are “terrified?” That they indeed fear for his life, or theirs? The truth is that the American academia and the entertainment industry are filled with people that don’t like Israel and are not afraid to say so. Mel Gibson is an open anti-Semite and nothing has happened to him. He’s still working in the industry. Elvis Costello and the Pixies canceled their appearances for political reasons. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, a “Fatwa” by a Jewish halachic expert calling for the execution of critics of Israel has yet to be issued. No one is known to be in danger of assassination and no one has had to hire bodyguards because of threats to their life.
In Europe, on the other hand, there are a lot of courageous Muslims that are in exactly that position. They have to hide because of their views. Author Salman Rushdi is the best known among them. The list includes members of the entertainment industry, such as Omar Sharif, politicians such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and leading professors, such as Mohammed Arkoun, who was forced to remain silent for many long years because of threats to his life. But Waters lives in a fantasy world. He invented rabbis that control Israel in order to turn Israel into a clone of Nazi Germany, and he invented an entertainment industry in which people keep silent because they fear for their lives, notwithstanding the fact that many in the industry have canceled appearances in Israel.
Waters continues. He speaks about The Clinton plan, and “the story that they sold was “Oh Arafat fucked it all up”. Well, no, he did not. This is not the story“. Did they? Let’s see. The official response of the Palestinians, headed by Arafat, was as follows: ” We cannot, however, accept a proposal that secures neither the establishment of a viable Palestinian state nor the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.”
The plan itself was much better than the Palestinian description. But it was Bandar Bin-Sultan, then the mighty ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Washington, who told Arafat: “If we lose this opportunity, it is not going to be a tragedy. This is going to be a crime.” Arafat rejected the plan. He committed a crime. But Waters blames Israel.
It is not clear whether Waters is an anti-Semite. However, like your garden-variety skinhead, he too talks about Jewish or Israeli control over Fox and CNN. What is clear is that he is a fraud and a liar.
Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/roger-waters-the-professional-liar/
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