Roger Waters in Al Jazeera interview blasts U2's Bono as a 's**t' for voicing 'disgusting' pro-Israel views



Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters recently sat for an interview with Al Jazeera — a TV network widely regarded as a propaganda arm of radical Islam — and blasted U2 frontman Bono as a "s**t" for voicing "disgusting" pro-Israel views.

What's the background?

The day after terror group Hamas carried out a deadly surprise attack on a music festival in Israel on Oct. 7, U2 and Bono changed the lyrics of their anthemic song "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and honored slaughtered attendees of the Supernova festival, calling them "Stars of David."

Before U2 kicked into "Pride," lead singer Bono spoke to the audience at the Sphere in Las Vegas: "In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence … But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us and [for] those beautiful kids at that music festival.”

The iconic anthem began with Bono singing the usual lyrics softly and slowly while the Edge strummed an acoustic guitar. After the tune picked up speed, Bono spoke again: “Sing for our brothers and sisters who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel. We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people, music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”

At the most poignant moment of "Pride" — when it refers to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on "April 4" under a "Memphis sky" — the lyrics were altered to honor the massacre victims in Israel: “Early morning, October 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky. Stars of David, they took your life, but they could not take your pride.”

U2 Pride (In the Name of Love), Sphere Las Vegas 10/8/2023 Live Front Row youtu.be

What did Waters say?

Although Waters said during his interview with Al Jazeera that he respects the Jewish people and the Jewish religion, he ripped what he called the "Zionist entity" — and didn't hold back against Bono, either.

“Anybody who knows Bono should go and pick him up by his ankles and shake him until he stops being a ... s**t," Waters said, spelling out the swear word instead of speaking it.

He angrily added, “We have to start speaking to these people and saying, 'Your opinion is so disgusting and degrading when you stand up for the Zionist entity.' What [Bono] did in the Sphere in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, singing about the Stars of David, was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

— (@)

Anything else?

Waters has spoken against Israel for many years and has been accused of anti-Semitism along the way.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Waters during a November interview with journalist Glenn Greenwald said of the Hamas massacre, "My first response to the attack was 'let's wait and see what happened.' My second thought was 'how on earth did the Israelis not know this was going to happen?! Didn't the Israeli army hear the explosions at the bases when Hamas blew up the border fence? There's something strange about this."

Waters added that Hamas is "absolutely legally and morally obligated to resist the occupation" and that the terror group's attack was "made disproportionate by Israelis who invented stories of baby beheading," the Post said.

The New Musical Express said Waters has repeatedly denied anti-Semitism accusations and accused Israel of "abusing the term anti-Semitism to intimidate people like me into silence."

More from the NME:

He was recently the subject of a documentary, "The Dark Side Of Roger Waters," which was produced by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and collates various incidents of alleged anti-Semitism leveled against the musician.

Rogers spoke out against the documentary with a post to his official website, dismissing the project as “a flimsy, unapologetic piece of propaganda.” He later claimed that it “indiscriminately mixes things I’m alleged to have said or done at different times and in different contexts, in an effort to portray me as an anti-Semite, without any foundation in fact.”

The documentary highlights a controversial concert in Germany back in May 2023, which was criticized by the U.S. State Department who described it as “deeply offensive to Jewish people.” The gig saw him appear on stage wearing a black trench coat with a swastika-like emblem. At the time the musician defended the choice, claiming that the segment was a statement against fascism, injustice and bigotry and called criticism of it “disingenuous and politically motivated.”

In April, Waters won a legal battle to play a concert in Frankfurt after it was initially cancelled over claims of anti-Semitism, and last month it was reported that he had been dropped by his label BMG over his comments on Israel.

What's more, shock jock Howard Stern — who is Jewish — blasted Waters for sending a scolding letter to rocker Jon Bon Jovi for performing in Israel in 2015. Earlier that year, Waters wrote musician Alan Parsons — who engineered Pink Floyd's classic album "The Dark Side of the Moon" — asking him to reconsider plans to play in Israel. Parsons' response? “Music knows no borders, and neither do I.” Israeli supermodel Bar Rafieli in 2013 ripped Waters for boycotting her country.

U2 over the weekend kept up their activism; at one point, Bono lamented the continuing violence in the Middle East and said the biblical concept of loving our enemies and our neighbors is a "divine commandment" and "not advice."

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The Israel-Palestine Conflict is Causing VIOLENCE & DIVISION in America |Guest: Sara Gonzales|Ep 893

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Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters faces backlash for wearing Nazi-like uniform at Berlin concert, comparing Anne Frank with George Floyd and Palestinian journalist



Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters is facing backlash to imagery at his concert in Germany that some critics are calling "anti-Semitic." During his recent concert in Berlin, the controversial rocker was dressed in garb resembling a Nazi uniform, and there were comparisons of Anne Frank with George Floyd and a Palestinian journalist.

Waters' concert at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin last week has recently garnered attention after video clips were posted to social media.

The enormous screen at the concert highlighted numerous names during the show, including Anne Frank – the German girl who was forced to go into hiding because the Nazis were hunting down Jews.

Other names included U.S. victims of deadly police encounters, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Philando Castile.

Also broadcast on the screen was Sophie Scholl, an anti-Nazi political activist murdered by the Nazis; Mahsa Amini, a protester who died in the custody of Iranian "morality police" under suspicious circumstances in 2022; and Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist for Al Jazeera who was shot and killed during a firefight between Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank in 2022.

Also during the concert, Waters was dressed in a uniform that resembled that of a Nazi SS soldier. He is seen on video wielding a replica rifle and firing off rounds.

A large pig balloon floated over the crowd that reportedly had the logo of Elbit – an Israeli defense company.

\u201cjetzt hat sich der roger offenbar als waffen-SS verkleidet samt roter armbinde und er\u00f6ffnet das feuer mit einer gewehr-attrappe\u201d
— Nicholas Potter (@Nicholas Potter) 1684347686
\u201cHere is video footage of Roger Waters dressed in facist SS Nazi garb, shooting the machine gun at the show:\u201d
— Ari Ingel (@Ari Ingel) 1684879937

On Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter, "Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust."

\u201cGood morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.\u201d
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@Israel Foreign Ministry) 1684913341

"Roger Waters compares the tragic death of a Palestinian journalist covering a firefight between Israeli forces & Palestinian militants to the death of Anne Frank who was led to the slaughter with over 6 million other Jews at the hands of the Nazis," said Ari Ingel – director at Creative Community for Peace, a self-described "non-profit entertainment industry organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment community who have come together to promote the arts as a bridge to peace, to educate about rising antisemitism within the entertainment industry, and to galvanize support against the cultural boycott of Israel."

Waters' concert opened with a statement that read: "On a matter of public interest: a court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an anti-Semite. Just to be clear, I condemn antisemitism unreservedly."

At a concert in Belgium in 2013, Rogers also donned a Nazi-like uniform and had a floating pig with the Star of David emblazoned on it.

The Times of Israel reported in 2013:

Waters, who recently urged other performers to boycott Israel and compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, was singing on stage on July 20 under the balloon while toting a machine gun replica and wearing a long black leather jacket with a red-and-white arm band, reminiscent of a Nazi uniform. The former Pink Floyd member was singing “get him up against the wall, that one looks Jewish and that one’s a coon, who let all of this riff-raff into the room” – the lyrics of the song “In the Flesh.”

"In the Flesh" is from Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall." The song is about a jaded rock star named "Pink," who "hallucinates himself as a Nazi-like dictator ordering his audience to attack ethnic minorities."

The song ends with Waters as Pink declaring, "If I had my way I'd have all of you shot!"

Waters – who turns 80 in September – is currently on his farewell tour, called "This Is Not a Drill."

Roger Waters rips 'war criminal' Biden over Ukraine, declares 'Taiwan is part of China,' lauds Russia for 'almost' winning World War II



In a dizzying and contentious CNN interview focusing on world politics, Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters explained why he's calling President Joe Biden a "war criminal" as part of his current concert tour — and managed to declare that "Taiwan is part of China" and even that Russia "almost" won World War II.

What are the details?

As readers of TheBlaze know by now, Waters arguably has been more of a geo-political pundit in recent years than a musician and performer.

The bass player and songwriter behind iconic albums such as "The Wall" and "The Dark Side of the Moon" previously targeted former President Donald Trump and Israel, but with his current "This Is Not a Drill Tour,” Waters has taken issue with Biden:

Image source: YouTube screenshot

When CNN’s Michael Smerconish recently asked Waters about his anti-Biden imagery at his concerts, Waters replied, “Well, he’s fueling the [war] in the Ukraine, for a start. That is a huge crime. Why won’t the United States of America encourage [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy ... to negotiate, obviating the need for this horrific, horrendous war ...”

When Smerconish told Waters he's “blaming the party who got invaded — c'mon, you've got it reversed,” Waters shot back with the following to the CNN host: "Any war, when did it start? What you need to do is look at the history, and you can say, ‘Well, it started on this day.’ You could say it started in 2008 … This war is basically about the action and reaction of NATO pushing right up to the Russian border, which they promised they wouldn’t do when [Mikhail] Gorbachev negotiated the withdrawal of the USSR from the whole of Eastern Europe.”

Smerconish countered by asking Waters about the U.S.'s role as “liberators," particularly during World War II.

Waters wasn't having it: “You got into World War II because of Pearl Harbor. You were completely isolationists until that sad, that devastating, awful day in 1941 ... Thank God the Russians had already won the bloody war almost by then. Don't forget 23 million Russians died protecting you and me from the Nazi menace.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The back-and-forth didn't let up, as Smerconish argued that "you would think that the Russians would've learned their lesson from war — and wouldn't have invaded Ukraine."

With that Waters told the host — who was chuckling by this point — “I would suggest you, Michael ... go away and read a bit more, and then try and figure out what the United States would do if the Chinese were putting nuclear-armed missiles into Mexico and Canada."

"The Chinese are too busy encircling Taiwan as we speak, OK?" Smerconish chirped back at Waters.

"They're not encircling Taiwan! Taiwan is part of China! And that's been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948," Waters hollered at the host. "And if you don’t know that, you're not reading enough. Go and read about it! ... You're believing your propaganda, your side’s propaganda. ... You can’t have a conversation about human rights, and you can’t have a conversation about Taiwan without actually doing the reading.”

Then it was Smerconish's turn to get testy: "Roger, Roger! If you're having a conversation about human rights, at the top of the list of offenders are the Chinese. Why is it always the Western world ..."

“The Chinese didn’t invade Iraq and kill a million people in 2003,” Waters interrupted, and soon wondered, "Who have the Chinese invaded and murdered, slaughtered?”

“Their own,” Smerconish replied, presumably in reference to the Uyghurs, although Smericonish didn't clarify that in the moment. "Their own."

“Bullocks! That’s absolute nonsense! Complete nonsense! You should go away and read!" Waters shot back before the interview ended on a surprisingly friendly note.

Pink Floyd co-founder explains meaning behind warning at the top of his show youtu.be

(H/T: Consequence of Sound)

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters roundly rejects 'powerful idiot' Mark Zuckerberg's request to use classic song to promote Instagram: 'F*** you. No f***in' way.'



Turns out Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is no fan of Mark Zuckerberg and his social media empire.

The longtime rocker made his thoughts on the Facebook and Instagram chief clear on video during a recent "Free Julian Assange" event, Rolling Stone reported Monday, when he loudly and roundly rejected Zuckerberg's offer to pay him "huge" money to use Pink Floyd's classic 1979 song, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" for an upcoming promotion of Instagram.

Waters read from a "missive from Mark Zuckerberg" asking for Waters' OK to use the hit song for a film to promote Instagram that, he said, "arrived this morning, with an offer for a huge, huge amount of money."

"And the answer is, 'F*** You. No f***in' way,'" Waters told the cheering crowd.

The rocker blasted the "insidious movement" by social media giants to "take over absolutely everything."

"I will not be a party to this bulls**t, Zuckerberg," Waters added.

"We want to thank you for considering this project," Waters read from the letter. "We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is."

He then launched into a critique of Facebook and Instagram, which have become infamous for censoring content they don't like from getting to the general public, for wanting to use the song to make the companies "even bigger and more powerful" than they currently are.

Content warning: rough language

“¡Vete a la chingada!”: @rogerwaters a Mark Zuckerberg. El músico contó que le ofrecieron “una gran cantidad de din… https://t.co/dLFCxOiSzp

— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) 1623475200.0

Citing his movement to get what he considers the truth about Assange out to the world, Waters said the social media companies want to grow "so they can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange from getting out to the general public."

Waters went on to personally attack Zuckerberg as a "powerful idiot" who got his start by ranking women's looks.

Alluding to FaceMash, an app Zuckerberg started during his Harvard days to rate the appearance of campus coeds, before creating Facebook, Business Insider said, Waters asked, "How did this little prick who started off by saying, 'She's pretty, we'll give her a four out of five; she's ugly, we'll give her a one,' how did he get power in anything?"

"And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world," Waters concluded.

Rolling Stone and Business Insider said Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.