The dark side of Pink Floyd's Roger Waters
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is abhorrent, even for an aging rock star.
Greetings and Shalom, Roger Waters,
As I write this letter, I pray that it reaches you. Ever since my teens, way back in the early '70s, I’ve dreamed of writing you a personal letter to thank you for the great moments that the music you wrote and performed with Pink Floyd contributed to my life. I never thought a day would come when I’d be writing you another kind of letter, I never thought that my cultural hero would disappoint me, and maybe also those of my generation in Israel, so terribly.
After reading what you said in an interview with the online CounterPunch magazine on Dec. 6, in which you compared Israel to the Nazis in Germany, I decided first of all to go back to your music for a minute. I put on “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” full blast, hoping the muted sounds of the guitar that grow and erupt in ear-shattering pain would overcome the distorted sounds you were making today. I closed my eyes to the sounds of the lament written in tribute to your band member who suffered a mental breakdown. And I remembered the days when the vinyl album would creak to its end on the record player, and I would be teary-eyed in excitement.
What genius, the way you and your friends in the band managed to touch the very soul of an entire generation and to tell a story — about youth, education, walls, madness, bounds, money and dreams. About life. There was no Internet then and there were no social networks, but I remember us, young dreamers in a distant land in the Middle East, imagining the world as one small village, listening avidly to your divine playing. You were our idol.
