In a recent interview with a leftist magazine, Roger Waters, the former lead singer of Pink Floyd, compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
He defended his decision not to perform in Israel by implicitly comparing the Middle Eastern democracy to the Nazis, saying “I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in the Second World War, I would not have played in Berlin either during this time.”
He later made the point more explicitly, stating “the parallels with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are so crushingly obvious.” In his opinion, Israel has never been serious about promoting a two state solution and instead claimed that it has always had the “agenda of kicking all the Arabs out of the country and becoming greater Israel.”
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Waters, who was the longtime leader of the legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has been a longtime critic of Israel, which he described as being run by a regime that practiced “systematic racist apartheid.” He has long supported efforts to boycott the country and refused to perform there. He received attention earlier this year when he released an inflatable pig emblazoned with a Star of David among other symbols during a concert in Belgium.
In the interview with Counter Punch magazine, the British musician also bemoaned the “extraordinary power” of what he described as “the Jewish lobby.” He said that the mainstream media in the United States is part of “a propaganda machine” that spews “Netanyahu’s bluster” across the country. Waters likened it to “a huge bucket of crap that they are pouring into the mouth of a gullible public.” In his opinion, the threat of Iran getting nuclear weapons is simply “a diversionary tactic” to distract from Israel’s real agenda.
Waters’ comments are unlikely to shock those who have followed the musician’s recent career where he has often expressed distaste for Israeli policies. Earlier this year, he described Israel as “a functioning theocracy . . . that operates Apartheid.” But, in comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, these comments are by far the most controversial that the musician has made yet on the subject.
