I wouldn't ban his concerts and I'd be really disappointed if Keir Starmer called for a ban.
But I think it's right for people to be concerned about what he says at them. He was at it again two nights ago at the 02 arena in London.
https://variety.com/2023/music/reviews/roger-waters-controversial-comments-london-concert-review-1235635917/He's anti-semitic, I've no doubt about that. It's left-wing anti-semitism rather than right-wing, but that's really just splitting hairs. There was plenty of stuff the other night about how Israel secretly controls British elections and political parties, just as it has been said by Waters to control the world's financial system and American foreign policy. Classic Jewish conspiracy stuff. Protocols of the Elders Zion stuff. It's painful hearing kids at these concerts whooping their approval of this sinister shit.
He constantly uses the word "Jews" even when talking about "Israelis" (as he does in the video that someone posted above). I suspect he can't help himself. His views on Israel are completely one-sided and are designed, surely, to upset Jews worldwide. Why else compare Israel to Nazi Germany or the West Bank to the Warsaw Ghetto? Why else say that Israel is bent on genocide in the Middle East? Crazy and ignorant stuff obviously, but it's meant to wound and frighten anyone who's Jewish I think. It sometimes feels that for Waters - and other left-wing anti-semites- that the only good Jews are the ones killed in the Holocaust (Ann Frank etc). They can get behind them. But the living ones? The survivors who went on to found Israel are hated with a passion and singularity that beggars belief when you think about it.
I suspect he doesn't care a shit about Arabs. Certainly, the biggest killer of Arabs over the last 12 years has been Assad and the Syrian regime. But Waters likes Assad and defends the regime. It wasn't too long ago that he was promoting the disgusting idea that the White Helmets were all actors and that the poison bombs that Assad and Russia were pouring on Aleppo and other Syrian towns were fictions and fabrications propagated by the White Helmets and the Western media. Did we hear from waters about the Baathist massacre of Palestinians in the Yarmouk ghetto? Of course not. He doesn't care about them. Assad is anti-Western and therefore Waters gives him a free pass to do what he likes. Really, really sinister stuff.
Naturally, he supports the Putin regime too and chats endless shit about Ukraine and Zelenskiy. Why? Because Putin is anti-Western too. It's all of a piece.
Like I say, I don't want him 'cancelled'. But he should be called out. There's not much danger of him being deprived a voice anyway. It wasn't that long ago that Roger Waters was invited to address the United Nations General Assembly on Ukraine. Waters on Ukraine! A megaphone to address the world! Crazy stuff. I'm sure a lot of folk will remember the occasion. It was a good day for Putin.
