Howard Stern can’t figure out why Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is seemingly consumed with hostility toward the Jewish people and their homeland in the state of Israel.
“It seems to me [Israel] is the only place in the Middle East that actually treats people half-way nicely,” the SiriusXM host declared in his radio show rant about the British rock musician who resides in the U.S.
Listen to the embedded audio (NSFW for language) below.
Accusing the Jewish state of apartheid policies, Waters published an open letter in Salon trying to discourage the Bon Jovi band from performing for the first time in Israel. The concert went forward on Saturday night as planned, however. During the concert, Jon Bon Jovi dedicated the band’s new song “We Don’t Run” to Tel Aviv and Israel.
Upon his arrival in the country, frontman Jon Bon Jovi admitted that “we’re happy to finally be here. This is a place that I’ve always wanted to come to, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally come to Israel” and that he “always heard what a wonderful place Israel is — the birthplace of all religions,” the Times of Israel reported .
On the radio, Stern also slammed Waters for his inability to make peace with his Pink Floyd band mates or his wife, let alone try to resolve the issues between Israel and the Palestinians.
Late last month, Waters, 72, filed for divorce from Laurie Durning.
According to Howard Stern, the former America’s Got Talent judge, Roger Waters should pipe down about his anti-Israel obsession, which some might construe as anti-Semitism.
“He’s got to shut up, Roger Waters. What is with Roger Waters and the Jews? You know what, why does Roger Waters live in America, a country that was founded on white people coming in and obliterating the native population? How does he stand it? Why don’t we just all leave?…
“If you take a look over there, Roger, genius, Mr. Pink Floyd…There are so many Arab countries and so much land around Israel that if you threw a pin in a pool, that’s what Israel is. Picture a desert with no natural resources, no water, no oil. It was a sh*thole that nomads essentially would walk over. So they figured, where’s the one place they can stick Jews where no one will be offended… Jews are getting killed all over the world, so give them a little homeland on a desert where there’ s no water. Where essentially no one could like, and no one lived there despite the bulls**t….The Palestinians are these Arabs that could live in Egypt, they could live in Saudi Arabia, but guess what? Those countries don’t want them either…And it bugs the sh*t out of Roger Waters. He can’t f*****g deal with it. He’s writing letters to Bon Jovi…where do you want the Jews to go, Roger?… You want them to just go back to the concentration camp?”
In callbacks to the Niagara Falls vaudeville-era comedy routine made famous by the Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello as well as Pink Floyd’s iconic album, Howard Stern continued his critique of Roger Waters.
“Why is [Waters] so bugged about Israel? …[Waters] is like Curly in the Three Stooges, ‘slowly I turn, step by step’…maybe Roger Waters wants them all to move to the dark side of the moon…why don’t the surrounding Arab countries take in the Palestinians?”
Roger Waters is a vocal supporter of efforts by the left to isolate Israel in terms of commerce and in particular to convince musicians to avoid playing there.
“Waters and other supporters of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement urged the band to cancel the concert, but a local promoter said that Bon Jovi, a longtime Democrat who recently hosted a fundraiser for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, ‘couldn’t care less,’” the Times of Israel added .
An enthusiastic Jon Bon Jovi, 53, also told the assembled concert goers in Tel Aviv, however, that he would return “any time you want.”
Israel is the only functioning multicultural democracy in the Middle East. Moreover, while the United Nations and the international community in general put Israel under a microscope, territorial disputes exist all over the world.
“Israel has been facing a wave of terrorist attacks during this holiday week of Sukkot. It’s unclear if the rock star knew that shortly before the concert began, two Israeli men were stabbed to death and a toddler was wounded by a Palestinian attacker in Jerusalem,” The Blaze noted about the Jon Bon Jovi concert in Israel.
In July 2014 during the Gaza hostilities, Howard Stern declared that “If you’re anti-Israel, then you’re anti-America.”
Do you agree or disagree with Howard Stern’s criticism of Roger Waters’ anti-Israel activism?
[Photos by Dave Kotinsky, Carl Court, and Larry Busacca/Getty Images]
Bon Jovi dedicates song ‘We Don’t Run’ to Israel. Show started minutes after J’lem terror attack http://t.co/b6BNfME3a2 via @timesofisrael
— David Horovitz (@davidhorovitz) October 3, 2015