On the one hand Roger Waters, responding to complaints about his use of the Star of David on an inflatable pig, indignantly denied that he is antisemitic:
I have many very close Jewish friends, one of whom, interestingly enough, is the nephew of the late Simon Wiesenthal. I am proud of that association; Simon Wiesenthal was a great man. Also I have two grandsons who, I love more than life itself, their Mother, my daughter in law, is Jewish and so, in consequence, I’m told, are they.
On the other hand Waters recently wrote in a letter “To My Colleagues in Rock and Roll” urging them to boycott Israel:
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.
Perhaps someone can explain to me the point of including “(Nee Fraenkel),” other than to insinuate that said baroness is of suspiciously, um, Zionist origin.
