Muddy Waters

"I'm also clearly not an antisemite" says aged band frontman and veteran Israel knocker Roger Waters straightfaced, alleging an unwarranted smear campaign "beyond belief" against Jeremy Corbyn, and remarking that the "rich and powerful" who own the media may be on their way to controlling "everything".

Whatever can he mean?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWSvG8vO0ls&feature

In Oz, Waters Drizzles & Sizer Sizzles

How odd it seems that old friend the ex-vicar of Virginia Water, now CEO of the so-called Peacemaker Mediators outfit, seems so unconcerned about the lack of churches in the land that's exported Wahhabism to the West:

But I digress.  A couple of days after posting the above, and about as long after my post here, Stephen Sizer flew into a rainy Sydney, to the delight of his Aussie counterpart, Father Dave Smith of Holy Trinity Church, Dulwich Hill, seen below at an Australia Palestine Advocacy Network function some time ago.

Incidentally, have you seen aged rocker Roger Waters's outrageous remarks at APAN's recent function, alleging Israel has never wanted peace with the Palestinian Arabs and was always intent on land grabbing?

Warning: the above's 72 minutes long, I'm given to understand.  This first still comes at around 1:30 if you want to see the outrageous bit to which I refer:

Needless to say, APAN is delighted that Sizer has come to Australia.

But again I digress.  Here are the two anti-Israel Anglican clerics all smiles at breakfast on Sizer's first day in town.

And our old friend, a seasoned traveller in spreading the anti-Christian Zionism cause, seems to have wasted little time in meeting people who matter and in attempting to widen a fan base here.

See what I mean?

And

(For Lynn Arnold see here)

I don't think this Sizer fan (below, one of the many evident antisemites among the vicar's Facebook friends) is Aussie, but he's delighted anyway:

Permit me a cynical, ironic smile while I recall that disgusting 9/11 post of Sizer's, and not only it, as so many images I've reproduced over the years indicate:

But we smile at Sizer's "Australian tour" at our peril.  In the anti-Israel propaganda stakes the urbane and softly spoken ex-vicar's a pro.  What he's spreading and who he's influencing during his time in the southern hemisphere should have friends of Israel worried.

"I Was Quite Willing to Wait ... Germany Would Undoubtedly Soon Come to Her Senses"

So Tony Blair has condemned aged rocker Roger Waters' obscene comparison of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with Nazi Germany's treatment of the Jews.

Corbynista Waters, calling for cultural BDS, despicably claimed the "parallels  and what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious" and revealed afresh his antisemitism by alleging baneful influence the "extraordinarily powerful" Jewish lobby has in the West.

Blair told his interviewer, documentary filmmaker Ian Halperin:

"I think the criticism [of Israel by Waters] is so ludicrous that it indicates a basic hostility to the notion of a homeland for the Jewish people... you’ve got to overcome the legacy of that ideological poison which has dripped into the system over many decades", 

Furthermore:

“I think it is part of a wider alliance which is dangerous and worries me... which is the leftist-Islamist alliance. It’s a growing problem… there is nothing progressive about a totalitarian ideology.”

Thus concedes the man who by his noisome "Open Door" immigration policy when prime minister foisted virtually unbridled Muslim migration on the United Kingdom.  He has, all too late, seemingly come to his senses.  It appears, by contrast, Angela Merkel has yet to come to her senses by recognising the parallel danger her lunacy in permitting an invasion of mainly military age Muslim males has inflicted on her country.

Mention of Merkel reminds me of an item I last week found by chance in a West Australian newspaper, the Kalgoorlie Miner of 14 October 1939.  Headed "A Poignant Letter", it reproduced, in slightly shortened form, a letter that a German-Jewish lawyer (unnamed) had written to an old school friend (name given as Frederick) on 2 February 1939:

'It is, my friend, inconsiderate of me to send our dearest friend a personal death notice. Forgive me for this act of ghoulishness, since when you hold these lines in your hand we shall already have escaped from the hardships that have been ours on this unfriendly earth. We could not stand it any longer! Our nerves were not strong enough to allow us to continue in the face of such insult, such dirty treatment, violent hatred and crazy exploitation which have been heaped upon us in the last few months.

You, who shared with me a bench in school, know how little was in me of that which the 'new' Germany designated '"he Jewish spirit". It was as a German thatI felt, laboured and lived. In 1914 I voluntarily joined the army, and saw four years of service in the front lines. Three times I was wounded, and three times returned to the trenches. At the end of the war I received my "honourable discharge" in the days of inflation which followed I, like most Germans, lost the greater portion of my possessions, and since then have worked hard for my daily bread.

When, in 1933, I was given to understand that I belonged to the "Jewish swine" whose blood must once more flow if Germany was to be a nation among nations, with many others I interpreted this as a passing aberration on the part of the German people, convinced that the nation had too basically healthy a core to permit such a principle to be its guide for long. I noticed that many of my friends hitched themselves to this new bandwaggon, while apologetically explaining that it was better to appear to support the new regime. "Actually, you know, I'm still the same old fellow," said many of them to me.

Maria and I smiled a bit, and went on living our quiet, peaceful and increasingly confined existence. Occasionally someone advised that I rescue a fraction of my earnings by making investments abroad, but I had no intention of leaving my native country. I was quite willing to wait until things resumed a more normal course. I could not imagine life as an exile, and Germany would undoubtedly soon come to her senses.

And so we found ourselves in November, 1938. One frightful morning we were awakened at 6o'clock, to face five adolescent boys dressed like civilian gangsters, and armed with hatchets, clubs and revolvers.

 I was locked in the bathroom, and could hear them as they carried on their 'search for weapons'. Drawer upon drawer they emptied on the street below.

The furnishings of my study were completely destroyed, and the rugslashed with knives. My beautiful ceramics, which included some pieces any museum would have been proud to own, were smashed into smithereens. The Rembrandt sketch, my lovely Gothic statue of the Madonna, Daumier's drawings — everything on the walls and on thewindow sills was banged about until it was utterly ruined.

Maria stood helplessly by, in a paroxysm of fury, as she watched these bearers of our 'new' German culture do more damage than could a shell from a bombing 'plane. The poor, misguided little animals did a thoroughly good job. Suddenly it occurred to my wife to fetch from an old wardrobe my army uniform,which had been lying in mothballs for almost 10 years. The spot where, at Ypres, the grenade which splintered my shoulder-blade struck had been neatly mended and the ribbons of the various decorations I had won were still attached to the tunic.

The leader of the band screamed at Maria:"How does that honourable state uniform come to be in this Jewish pig-stall?" Maria, replied, as calmly as she could force herself to speak: "That's the uniform of the man you've just locked in the bathroom. He wore it for four years in the trenches. Wouldn't you like to take it as a souvenir of your morning's work? Take it, please!" And she threw it at them as they stood, suddenly staring in embarrassed silence. The quiet was finally broken by the young chiefain who turned and said to the others : "I think we've finished here." As they filed out he said, half respectfully, half defiantly, "We're only doing our duty".

We thought the uniform had rescued our kitchen and bedroom, anyway, but later as we sat drinking coffee there was a knock on the door. Two sleepy members of theSecret State Police stood there, and in peevish accents ordered us to dress at once and come with them. We were under arrest.There is no need to burden you with the details of life in the concentration camp, of the many gross indignities and refined tortures to which I found myself subjected.

Imagine some two or three thousand poor devils, many over 60 years of age, huddled together in one great barracks, without covering in the icy November cold, without any washing facilities, without even a drink of water unless they had the mark with which to buy it from their black torturers. Gruesome hardly describes it. They died by the dozen each day.

 After three weeks of this horror I was summoned to appear before the camp supervisor. Maria had worked like one possessed and had at last obtained my freedom, on condition that we leave Germany by January 15.

 After writing literally hundreds of friends abroad my wife had visited every foreign consulate in Germany, and eventually, because of the written invitations which she produced, and her own Aryan passport, she was able to obtain for both of us a visitor's visa to England. Guaranty for our maintenance in exile was found, and we set about preparing ourselves to leave the country. We were solemnly informed that permission to work could not be granted to an attorney.

Our possessions were dispersed among Nazi party members for a small fraction of their actual value.

For weeks I was busy with officials, who kept presenting me with tax] bills that grew higher and higher.

Six months before, my fortune had been appraised at 300,000 Reichmarks under the famous Goering Ordinance, but now it suddenly shrank to a meagre 30,000 and even this was swallowed by various foreign exchange bureaus. Any personal commodities we required had to be begged for, and proof furnished of "the purpose for which we intended the article".

One day I found myself wondering just exactly what I could do on the other side of the Channel, with 30 shillings in my pocket and, no possibility of work. What would our life be worth to us? Personal freedom, without the right to work and to justify one's existence, is not worth the price we should have to pay in a life of beggary.

Had we had children we might have attempted it, for their sake, but for ourselves, no! A life of vegetation is no life at all.

And so we came to the resolve that we would rather take leave of life than depart from Germany.

We did not find it hard. For 47 years I have travelled in the heights and in the valleys which life offers and now am rather happy again at the prospect of once more beginning anew....'

What The Hack?! Strange Chemistry with Fetid Waters

Chemi Shalev is US editor of that generally abominable newspaper (many will think "newspaper" an over-polite description) Ha'aretz, Israeli media outlet of choice for the BBC, the ABC, and Israel-demonisers everywhere.

On Twitter today Shalev gives an insight into why:

Here's a sample of reactions (among those also expressing distaste are well-known blogger Aussie Dave of Isreallycool fame and NGO Monitor's Professor Gerald Steinberg).

Chemi tries to claim the high moral ground:

Oy!

Something For The Weekend, Sir? A T-shirt, a soul uplift, & a harangue

First, an unmissable post from Edgar Davidson.

Next, a stalwart stance (with numerous likes and shares and approving comments) against an incidence of  dry and rueful British humour "Islamophobia" by British perpetual anti-Israel campaigner Ben White, the chap who is on record as saying that he can understand why some people are antisemitic and who seems to have a problem with Jewish physiognomy:

Like White, British anti-Israel propagandist broadcast journalist Harry Fear seems inordinately fond of Islam and of peppering his posts with Islamic phrases:

Meanwhile, reading between the lines of his latest screed, which reminds Dionne Warwick of the fight against Apartheid South Africa and of Jim Crow in the American South, it would seem that the eradication of Israel as a sovereign state is what aged rocker and veteran Israel hater Roger Waters hopes for:

'[W]e, in the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, will win this one against the similarly racist and colonialist policies of the Israeli government of occupation.  We will continue to press forward in favor of equal rights for all the peoples of the Holy Land.... There is no place today in this world for another racist, apartheid regime.

.... I remember the road to Montgomery, I remember Selma, I remember the struggles against the Jim Crow laws here. Sadly, we are still fighting those battles, whether here in the USA in Ferguson or Baltimore, or in Gaza or the Negev, wherever the oppressed need us to raise our voices unafraid.  We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, our brothers and sisters, until true equality and justice are won....

... When global pressure finally forces Israel to end its occupation, when the apartheid wall comes down, when justice is served to Palestinian refugees and all people there are free and equal, I will gladly join you in concert in the Holy Land, cross all the boundaries and share our music with all the people.'

 But I guess we've had grounds for suspecting that all along.

Roger Waters: A meeting of minds

In the course of a must-read article here, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach observes of the Pink Floyd frontman's recent despicable comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany:

'Roger Waters’ balderdash about rabbis believing that non-Jews are subhumans is the dirtiest of blood libels and contradicts the core teachings of the Torah which states in its very first chapter, Genesis 1, that every human being is created equally in the image of God.

And surely, even someone with as rancid a heart as Mr. Waters, is familiar with what Christians call Jesus’s Golden rule, but which is actually found much earlier, in the Hebrew Bible, the commandment to “Love your fellow man as yourself” (Leviticus 19.17), which Hillel, in the Talmud, interpreted to mean, “That which you hate do not do unto others.”

Perhaps Mr. Waters should take Hillel’s advice. Stop maligning a people who have paid a terrible price for the kind of abominable lies that people like Roger Waters unjustly hurl.'

There's been more lambasting of Waters' remarks, as reported here

Waters' vile analogy has been criticised even by that inveterate knocker of Israel, the Reverend Stephen Sizer: on Facebook (hat tip: reader P) some of Sizer's followers are overtly aghast at this unexpected observation of his:

Meanwhile, as seen in this report, there seems to be a paralysing split, regarding goals, between Palestinian Islamists and secular nationalists, and there's a triumphalist article by Omar Barghouti, daddy of the BDS movement, about recent triumphs for BDS here

Roger Waters: "The parallels with what went on in the '30s in Germany are so crushingly obvious"

Here's part of the provided transcript of a phone interview that aged rocker and Israel-basher Roger Waters gave on 4 December to UK-based anti-Israel activist Frank Barat.  (I have not listened to the interview myself, and so have not verified the accuracy of the transcript.)

Barat: You're talking about yourself being one of the only one, in your position, taking radical political positions. When it comes to Palestine, you are very open about your support for a cultural boycott of Israel. People opposing this tactic say that culture should not be boycotted. What would you answer to that?

Waters: I would say that I understand their opinion. Everybody should have one. But I can't agree with them, I think that they are entirely wrong. The situation in Israel/Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable. So for an artist to go and play in a country that occupies other people’s land and oppresses them the way Israel does, is plain wrong. They should say no. I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in the Second World War, I would not have played in Berlin eitherduring this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it's the Palestinian People being murdered. It's the duty of every thinking human being to ask: “What can I do?”

Anybody who looks at the situation will see that if you choose not to take up arms to fight your oppressor, the non violent route, and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which started in Palestine with 100 per cent support from Palestinian civil society in 2004-2005, a movement that has now been joined by many people around the world, the global civil society, is a legitimate form of resistance to this brutal and oppressive regime. I have nearly finished Max Blumenthal's book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in greater Israel”. It's a chilling read. It's extremely well written in my view. He is a very good journalist and takes great pains to make sure that what he writes is correct. He also gives a voice to the other side. The voice, for instance, of the right wing rabbinate, which is so bizarre and hard to hear that you can hardly believe that it's real. They believe some very weird stuff you know, they believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them and they believe that the Indigenous [sic!] people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human. The parallels with what went on in the 30’s 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. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine was trying to shed light on this when we met, I only took part in two sessions, you took part in many more. It is an extremely obvious and fundamental problem of human rights which every thinking human being should apply himself to....

....Well, where I live, in the USA, I think, A: they [other artists] are frightened and B: I think the propaganda machine that starts in Israeli schools and that continues through all the Netanyahu’s bluster is poured all over the United States, not just Fox but also CNN and in fact in all the mainstream media. It's like a huge bucket of crap that they are pouring into the mouth of a gullible public in my view, when they say “we are afraid of Iran, it is going to get nuclear weapons...”. It’s a diversionary tactic. The lie that they have told for the last 20 years is “Oh, we want to make peace”, you know and they talk about Clinton and Arafat and Barak being in Camp David and that they came very close to agreeing, and the story that they sold was “Oh Arafat fucked it all up”. Well, no, he did not. This is not the story. The fact of the matter is no Israeli government has been serious about creating a Palestinian state since 1948. They’ve always had the Ben Gurion agenda of kicking all the Arabs out of the country and becoming greater Israel. They tell a lie as part of their propaganda machinery whilst doing the other thing but they have been doing it so obviously in the last 10 years....

 ....This has been a very hard sell particularly where I live in the United States of America. The Jewish lobby is extraordinar[il]y 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 terrifiedthat if they stand shoulder to shoulder with me they are going to get fucked. ...

.... You know that Shuki Weiss [the Israeli impresario] was offering me a hundred thousand people at $100 a ticket a few months ago to come and play in Tel
Aviv! “Hang on, that’s $10 million”, how could they offer it to me?! And I thought Shuki are you fucking deaf or just dumb?! I am part of the BDS movement, I’m not going anywhere in Israel, for any money, all I would be doing would be legitimizing the policies of the government. I have a confession to make to you. I did actually write to Cindy Lauper a couple of weeks ago. I did not make the letter public but I wrote her a letter because I know her a bit, she worked with me on the Wall in Berlin which is why I found it super difficult to understand that she is doing a gig in Tel Aviv on January the 4th,  apparently, quite extraordinary, reprehensible in my view, but I don’t know her personal story and people have to make up their own mind about these things. One can’t get too personal about it...." [Emphasis added]

 More here

Roger Waters Endorses Teaching Pack On "Israel & Palestine" For Irish Schools

At its launch at the Royal Irish Academy the aged rocker tells his audience that the document, issued by lobby group SADAKA, the Ireland Palestine Alliance (which among its other objectives aims at the return of the "all Palestinian refugees" that would of course mark Israel's demise as a Jewish State), would "kick up a big stink in certain quarters" ...

And so it should, if only for carrying the notoriously mendacious four-map set ...

"We Don't Need No Thought Control," huh?

See more here

And as noted here, Palestinian activist Dr Mustafa Barghouthi is in Dublin this week under SADAKA's auspices, and will meet foreign affairs minister Eamonn Gilmore, as well as participating in discussions with academics, trade unionists and NGOs.

He'll also be addressing a public meeting  "How Israel sabotaged the Two State Solution".

Incidentally, for a taste of Hibernian hostility to Israel in a documentary made by a former Press TV hack who tweets hatred of Israel see here

Roger Waters: "One Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state ..."

He's done it again: made remarks that suggest that he' might be at least a teeny weeny bit antisemitic.

The incorrigible Roger Waters of the rock group Pink Floyd seemingly needs no excuse to deride and demonise Israel.

But  famous British violinist Nigel Kennedy's remarks at the BBC Proms (described  below) have been characterised by Waters as the "inspiration" for issuing a new open letter denouncing Israeli "apartheid" and calling on fellow musicians to boycott Israel (see here for details).

Note, in this extract, the reference to pro-Israel Baroness Deech's maiden name, just in case her Jewishness might not be at once apparent (incidentally, this distinguished lady's father, Josef Fraenkel, was a renowned Yiddishist and co-author of Theodor Herzl, which appeared in 1943):

"Nigel Kennedy the virtuoso British violinist and violist, at The Recent Promenade Concerts at The Albert Hall in London, mentioned that Israel is apartheid. Nothing unusual there you might think, then one Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state and prevailed upon the BBC to censor Kennedy’s performance by removing his statement. Baroness Deech produced not one shred of evidence to support her claim and yet the BBC, non political, supposedly, acting solely on Baroness Deech’s say so, suddenly went all 1984 on us. Well!! Time to stick my head above the parapet again, alongside my brother, Nigel Kennedy, where it belongs. And by the way, Nigel, great respect man. So here follows a letter last re-drafted in July."

"If 'music is a great equaliser ... a bridge'," why boycott Israel?"  That's the question I'd put, if I could, to Nigel Kennedy (who used that phrase; see below), and not only to Mr Kennedy, but to Waters and other musicians who refuse to perform in Israel and who encourage others to follow their example.

Speaking from ["East"] Jerusalem in 2007 Mr Kennedy told the leftist Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz:

"I grew up in South London. There were Christians and Muslims and Jews, people from all over the world: the Balkans, India. As a boy, when I had no idea about religion, I nevertheless understood that there were many types of people with different beliefs, that there are many religions and that you have to respect all of them because they are all valid. That's what made me have diverse interests, and not be single-minded."

But he went on to say:

"I became aware of the Palestinian story while I was a student in New York. My girlfriend then was Palestinian, and, through her, I began to familiarize myself with and understand the problem even before the [separation] wall and the other atrocities. She had to return home every year or she would lose her citizenship, and, like it was for all of us students, that wasn't exactly her thing. Then I understood that it was simply a way to harass the Palestinians and prevent them from studying.

And today, I was really shocked when I saw the wall here. It's a new type of apartheid, barbaric behavior. How can you impose collective punishment and divide people from one another? We are all residents of the same planet. I would think that the world learned something from South Africa. And the world should boycott a nation that didn't learn. That's why I won't perform in your country." [Emphasis added]

Recently, speaking on BBC Radio 4 about his appearance at the BBC Proms, where he performed Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" with the young members of the Palestine Strings, Mr Kennedy said (listen here; hat tip: reader Jean Vercors):

"Music is a great equaliser and you can't make music unless it's a collaborative affair .... [It] represents an idealistic form of politics.... These problems of apartheid in Israel at the moment are extreme.  And when it was South Africa people did something about it [BBC interviewer enthusiastically "Yeah ..."] .... [Music's] a bridge whih shows that every human being from whatever background can get on with another human being from whatever background. People can work together. "

And here he is at the concert itself, using that "apartheid" word again, to a standing ovation.
 .
"Just marvellous!" says Al Beeb's news anchor at the end of this report on rehearsals, in which the appearance of the young players from the Disputed Territories is presented as a "boost for Palestine"; I assume she's paying tribute to the musicians' undoubted skills and not to the political propaganda:

Mr Kennedy, who in 2007 also said

 "I have lived [in Krakow] for the past seven years.... My life in Krakow is very rich when it comes to music.... I also play with a Klezmer trio, Trio Kroke. Kroke is the Yiddish word for Krakow. We play everything, from Jewish music to Balkan music...."

is undoubtedly well-meaning, but his and Waters' characterisation of Israel as an "apartheid" state is wrong, for it is not that at all, as this black South African leader's daughter, who knows what real apartheid is, eloquently explains (hat tip reader Ian).

An Israeli Musician Hits the Right Note on the BDS Movement

In the Jewish Daily Forward Kobi Oz, lead singer of the Israeli group Teapacks, has written an open letter to Roger Waters, front man of the group Pink Floyd, who recently announced his support for a cultural boycott of Israel and encouraged other musicians to follow suit.

The case against the BDS movement is superbly outlined by Kobi Oz (pictured below), who says in part:

'Unfortunately, the Middle East isn’t the most stable place, so Israelis know we have to be very careful as we pursue peace. We could sign an agreement with a moderate regime and suddenly find ourselves confronted with a fundamentalist enemy. We withdrew from Gaza and got Hamas. We pulled out of southern Lebanon, and now Hezbollah dominates the Lebanese government. We gave back the Sinai, and now Egypt is a great unknown.

Still, we yearn for peace. We try to talk with our neighbors in the Palestinian Authority, where life is getting better for ordinary Palestinians. If Hamas’s leaders would stop the bombardment of Israeli civilians and stop calling for our destruction and start having a normal relationship with their brothers in Ramallah, I’m sure that most Israelis would want to talk to them, too. And our wall, which you want to see dismantled, will fall when we have lasting quiet. Insha’Allah.

But in the meantime there are events like the murders in Itamar. Terrorists sneaked into a family’s home while they were sleeping and cut their throats. That settlement was outside of our security fence — they did not have this “appalling edifice,” as you called it, to protect them. A father, a mother and three kids — one a 3-month-old infant — paid the price.

Should we give up the fence that has made the last few years mostly free of suicide bombers? If we did, would you stand by our soldiers when they go out to intercept terrorists, or would you continue tying our hands while we fight to protect our citizens’ lives? I didn’t hear your voice, or the voices of your friends in the BDS movement, when thousands of Qassam rockets were being launched at my hometown and neighboring communities after we got out of Gaza. We only heard the world’s voice when we fought back.

Lastly, I want to ask, when you demand that we “promote” the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, do you understand that this means Israel would no longer be a Jewish state? If so, why should the Jews not be allowed to have their one state, while the Palestinians get four states? (Let me count them for you: the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, the Hamas state in Gaza, Jordan with its Palestinian majority ruled over by a Hashemite king and an Israel that would have a majority of Palestinian citizens after millions of refugees’ descendants move here.)

Jews have come home to Israel after centuries of living under Christian and Muslim “hospitality.” My own parents immigrated to Israel from Tunisia; they had to give up all their property and start their lives over. Jews from around the world came to Israel to fulfill our ancient dream of returning to our homeland, and to bring an end to our long nightmare of having no country to call our own.

Now you, in effect, are demanding that we forget all our dreams and become a minority in our own homeland. Are you serious? Have you not seen how the Coptic minority is treated in Egypt? Have you not seen how the Kurds have suffered in Turkey and Iraq? We won’t share their fate — we have had enough of that already.

At your age you ought to be suspicious of open-and-shut narratives of the sort embraced by the BDS movement, and be willing to look more deeply at the other side. Of course, we Israelis have plenty of room for improvement and could do more to pursue peace. But you should understand that if we are cautious, it is because our very survival is at stake.

If you truly want to be helpful in bringing about peace, embrace the power of dialogue, not boycotts. Music is for breaking down walls, not for building new ones.'

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/136188/#ixzz1Hu7yBvlt
and http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/03/another-bandsman-on-bds-bandwagon.html

Another Bandsman on the BDS Bandwagon

So now Roger Waters, front man of the band Pink Floyd, has joined the BDS movement. Reports today’s Jerusalem Post:

‘After years of what Waters says was inaction by the Israeli government to "grant civil rights to Israeli Arabs equal to those enjoyed by Israeli Jews" and the extension of the separation barrier "illegally annexing more and more of the West Bank," the musician decided to support "Palestinians in their civil, nonviolent resistance."’

Waters pleads "to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott." Read more here: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=210986

He has form, it seems, having been accused of antisemitism:
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2010/10/adl-accuses-roger-waters-of-anti.html

As reader Roger (obviously not Waters!) comments on the previous post:

“It is painful to behold the absurd comments he makes in this report, revealing his abject historical ignorance. Unfortunately, his politics will influence many young people.”

And of course Waters’s stance also points to Israel’s woeful failure adequately to make its case, and also the baneful influence of the one-sidedness of the BBC and much of the media in helping the Arabs win the war for public opinion.

A recent article by Rabbi Michael (Micky) Boyden refutes the “apartheid” canard that has influenced people like Waters to swallow Arab propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Observes Boyden:

‘[u]nder Israeli jurisdiction, for the first time in two thousand years, the holy sites of Jerusalem and, indeed, of all of Israel are open without restriction to those of all religions and of none.

The same could not always be said of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Muslims were not permitted to enter it following its capture by the Crusaders in the year 1100, and, when the Turks and later the Jordanians gained control, Jews were not allowed past the seventh step leading up to the tombs.

The 7th annual Israel Apartheid Week is scheduled to take place around the world at the beginning of March this year. Its organisers describe its purpose as “to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.”

Those who are familiar with Israel will know that the very notion of the country being an apartheid state is absolute nonsense. There are Arab judges, Arab members of Knesset and Arab consuls. Bedouins serve alongside Jews in the army [have a look at the accompaying video]. Go into our hospitals, where Jewish and Arab medical staff work side by side treating all of Israel’s population without distinction. Arab and Jewish presenters work alongside one another on TV shows. Enter our universities, where lecturers and students come from all strands of society. Visit our banks, our supermarkets and our shopping malls, where Jews and Arabs work and shop side by side.''

However, it was the American psychologist and philosopher, William James, who said: “There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” We need to be telling the world and those misguided people taking part in Israel Apartheid Week and supporting BDS campaigns that they are being sold a Palestinian propaganda lie, whose intention it is to delegitimize the only fully democratic state in the Middle East. [My emphasis]

Whereas Jews and Arabs live side by side in Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, has already made it abundantly clear that Jews will not be allowed to reside in a Palestinian State once it is established. Only last summer, he was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa as having said: “I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that even a single Israeli will live among us on Palestinian land.”

Of course, it is true that Arab travellers – and not only Arabs – are subject to particular scrutiny at Israel’s airports. Of course it is true, especially since the Intifada, that most Palestinians are not allowed to enter Israel. Of course, it is true that certain roads on the West Bank are closed to Palestinians. But that is not because of a policy of apartheid, but rather reflects a genuine and justified concern for safety in a country that was already the victim of terrorist attacks long before the assault on the World Trade Center or the murder of innocent commuters on the London underground.

As you drive up the highway towards the holy city of Mecca, the road divides into two. The overhead traffic signs indicate that straight ahead leads to “Mecca (Muslims only)”. The two lanes that lead off to the right are signposted “Riyadh” and are designated as “Obligatory for non Muslims”. So it is in a country where Jews are banned from entry and Christians are forbidden to build churches. But nobody says a word. http://weareforisrael.org/2011/02/16/israel-an-apartheid-state/