The fetching Polly Samson has been the lyricist for many of Pink Floyd’s songs. She is also the wife of a former Pink Floyd member, the guitarist David Gilmour, who for many decades has been at odds with his former bandmate Roger Waters about all sorts of things, including Waters’ obsessive hatred of Israel. Now Polly Samson has delivered her own blow to Waters in the form – what else these days? — of a tweet. She doesn’t hold back. More on this story can be found here: “‘Antisemitic to Your Rotten Core’: Roger Waters Accused of Antisemitism by Former Pink Floyd Bandmate, Lyricist,” by Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner, February 7, 2023:
Musician Roger Waters is facing a barrage of criticism from his former bandmate and lyricist after comparing Israel to Nazi Germany in an interview with the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung last week.
“The Israelis are committing genocide,” the former Pink Floyd frontman told Berliner Zeitung, according to an English translation of the interview that Waters shared on his website. “Just like Great Britain did during our colonial period … We believed ourselves to be inherently superior to the indigenous people, just as the Israelis do in Palestine. Well, we weren’t and neither are the Israeli Jews.”
Israel’s Jews do not believe themselves to be “inherently superior to the indigenous people” in the place, Judea, that the Romans renamed “Palestine.” The Jews are the “indigenous people” of that place. They’ve inhabited the area uninterruptedly for 3500 years. The Muslim Arabs arrived only in the 7th century, more than 2000 years after Jews are recorded as living there.
In response, Polly Samson, a lyricist for Pink Floyd and wife of band-member David Gilmour, wrote on Twitter: “You are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.”
Samson wrote lyrics for Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell. Gilmour, who has had a rift with Waters for decades, then re-shared Samson’s tweet and added that “every word [is] demonstrably true.”
Polly Samson wrote lyrics for Pink Floyd over a period of 20 years. That’s four years longer than Roger Waters was with the band. Both she and her husband David Gilmour were intimately acquainted with Waters’ “tax-avoiding,” which is why I suspect Waters won’t be eager to sue Samson for libel. Gilmour, it ought to be noted, has given away tens of millions of dollars to charities. Roger Waters appears to have given away much much less. Samson and Gilmour were also well aware of Waters’ “misogynistic” attitudes and acts. What went on off-stage with groupies, for example? What did he say to his bandmates about women? And his habit of “lip synching” has been going on since 1984. Do an Internet search for “Roger Waters” and “lip-synching” for many embarrassing examples. ”Lying, thieving, hypocritical” — let us hope Waters sues Polly Samson for libel so that she can bring her supporting evidence to the public. But I don’t think he dares.
Waters, 79, called the accusations “incendiary and wildly inaccurate” in a statement that he released on Twitter, adding that he denies the allegations “entirely.”
Waters — who is an avid support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement — further claimed that Israel has a right to exist “as long as it is a true democracy, as long as no group, religious or ethnic, enjoys more human rights than any other. But unfortunately that is exactly what is happening in Israel and Palestine. The government says that only Jewish people should enjoy certain rights. So it can’t be described as democratic.”
Israel, pace Waters, is a “true democracy.” It holds real, not sham, elections. Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs have the same civil, religious, and political rights. Israel is quite unlike the Palestinian Authority, whose President, Mahmoud Abbas, is now in the eighteenth year of his four-year-term – but that doesn’t seem to bother Roger Waters, a keen supporter of the P.A. And Israel’s democracy is quite different, too, from what happens in Gaza, where Hamas, that hasn’t held an election since 2007, rules with an iron fist. It is strange that Waters claims to be disturbed by Israel’s supposed lack of democracy. After all, Waters has been a strong supporter of Assad’s dictatorship in Syria, and lately, he has been declaring his support for the dictator Vladimir Putin and his war of aggression against Ukraine. In one respect only are Israeli Jews treated differently from Israeli Arabs. They must, while Arabs may, serve in the military
He also said that accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid “accurately describe[s] the reality in the occupied territory. I see that more and more clearly since I’ve been part of the BDS movement.” He told Berliner Zeitung later in the interview that he denies being antisemitic but also talked about his efforts to convince others in the music industry not to perform in Israel in support of the BDS movement….
The Arab population of Israel has gone from 160,000 in 1948 to more than two million today. The Arab population in the West Bank has gone from 900,000 in 1967 to 2.8 million in 2022. If Israel is guilty of “genocide,” it has a most peculiar way of going about it.
During the interview, Waters also voiced his continued support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he found it “really, really sad” that his former Pink Floyd bandmates released the benefit song Hey Hey Rise Up last year, featuring Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk, that helped raised funds for humanitarian aid given to those affected by the Russian-Ukraine war….
A syllogism: No decent person could possibly support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Roger Waters enthusiastically supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ergo …
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine last year, Waters referred to Israel as “a supremacist, settler colonialist project that operates a system of apartheid.” He has previously accused Jewish billionaire philanthropist Sheldon Adelson of being a “puppet master” controlling the US government and his past tours have featured a massive pig emblazoned with a Star of David. He also accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” “apartheid” and “international crimes” in a November 2012 address at the United Nations. In 2021, he suggested that it’s impossible to speak the “truth” about Israel because of Holocaust guilt.
Yes, how true: everyone is afraid to “speak the truth” about Israel. Everyone, that is, except for the UN General Assembly, that routinely places the Jewish state in the dock at its kangaroo court. Since 2015, the General Assembly has adopted 140 resolutions criticizing Israel, mainly over its treatment of the Palestinians, its relationships with neighboring countries, and other alleged wrongdoings. Over the same period, it has passed only 68 resolutions against all other countries combined. And everyone is afraid to “speak the truth” about Israel except for the UN Security Council, where only an American veto prevents an endless series of anti-Israel resolutions from being adopted. And everyone is afraid to speak the “truth” about Israel except at the UN Human Rights Council, where there is now a permanent item on its agenda, requiring that at every meeting of the Council it must discuss how Israel governs what the UNHRC calls “the Palestinian territories.” And everyone, as Roger Waters insists, is “afraid to speak the truth” about Israel – that is, criticize it – except for the EU, which is always scolding Israel for its “settlements” on “occupied Palestinian land,” and except for the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (O.I.C.), always ready to denounce the Jewish state, and telling the “truth” about Israel just the way Roger Waters conceives of it.
Roger Waters’ spittle-flecked anti-Israel venom has received a riposte from Polly Samson. I know I’ve quoted her tweet above, but I cannot resist repeating her single perfect paragraph of invective just one more time:
You are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.
Hear, hear.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I think that the concept of ‘chosen people’ that the Jews brand themselves is what rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I myself have no issues w/ that, since I don’t worship the deity they worship, but for those who do – Christians, I can see how that can rub them the wrong way
That said, the muslims have no grounds on which to complain, given what the quran writes about them (and I’m not even touching the hadiths)
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Also, good for Polly Samson for calling out Waters on his anti-Semitism
Sylvi Clark says
I support Roger 100%, Sampson is a parasitic leech, muc the same as her vile, unwashed woke, virtue signalling Son. The two of them are a disgrace to the U.K.
Scotsman48 says
Sylvi Clark: You are mercifully free from the ravages of intelligence.
muslims within the Borders of Israel have MORE Human Rights than any muslim in any islamic Nation on Earth today
YOU are the disgrace to the UK…
Linde B. says
To infidel-Thank you for your comments. I believe all people
were born with free will and can choose or not choose to believe
in God. And just so you know,
Christians do not believe in 3
gods. They believe in 1 God with
3 roles or manifestations. This
doctrine of a Triune God can be likened to any person being
born a son or a daughter, getting
married and becoming a husband or wife, and then having children
and becoming a mom or dad. Do
those 3 roles make a person 3 different people?
Additionally, a very learned pastor of the church I attend told us (during Bible study of the Old Testament) that “Jews were the civilizers of the world.” And I agree with that statement.
To conclude, I think Roger
Waters should rent or buy a residence in 1 of the Muslim
majority countries of the world
(but not Dubai) and live there for at least 1/3 of the year. He
would get a new perspective on
life in general and Israel in
particular, wouldn’t he?
bill carr says
Your analogy between the Holy Trinityand the members of a family is extremely weak
Waugh, Evelyn says
…weak just like democracy in muslim world…
bill carr says
Waters is not only a fool but he is also an ignorant fool. Does he even know that there are Arab Muslims sitting in the Knesset elected by Arabs? What is more Muslims occupy all kinds do positions in Israel’s exempary society and are the first to say they like living in Israel in preference to the ‘other place’
Waters is a sick person and I am sure he would have loved to be a member of the German Nazis
bill carr says
Typos ‘of’ and ‘exemplary’
John ..Smith says
I can’t bare to listen to the garbage and lies that keep constantly flowing from this anti-semite Roger Waters. Only a complete idiot would compare Israel to Nazi Germany, or state that, “Israel is committing genocide.” What absolute nonsense.
I applaud Polly Samson and her husband for trying put this half-wit in his place, but sadly he isn’t go to pay any attention, as he’s another Jeremy Corbyn.
somehistory says
He’s a liar, for sure. and saying she is wrong, just adds another lie.
Lawsuits have a way of exposing even more than the suer…or in his case, sewer…would wish to have exposed.
Scum such as he choose to ignore Israel’s history with the Land; that was given to them, and they had to fight to keep marauding bands from stealing it. mozlums are just one of many marauding bands and through other wrongs, have managed to lay claim what they stole.
If he had any decency, he’d be ashamed of his hatred and lies. I’ve never listened to any of their songs, but the two who called him out, deserve some respect for doing so.
Phil Copson says
“I’ve never listened to any of their songs…”
—————————————————–
Then you should, they’re superb – especially the albums “Dark Side Of The Moon” / “Wish You Were Here” / and “Division Bell”.
But none of that excuses Roger Waters. Like Jeremy Corbyn or Owen Jones, he is one of Life’s 16-year olds endlessly convinced that reading “The Guardian” makes him “an intellectual” and that he and he alone knows how the world should be run.
Under the long hair and life-long pretence of being a right-on Liberal, lies an old-fashioned 1950s Home Counties, public school educated “Can’t allow Jews in the Golf Club, old boy!” pompous, self-important, small-minded, triple-chromium-plated snob.
somehistory says
Maybe someday I will try listening to one, but there are so many songs I already know I like and don’t have the time to listen to all of them.
This guy seems to put too much importance on himself, and I’ve noticed that attitude can come through in music.
tgusa says
Waters has dumass written all over his face. He should not be allowed around power tools or silverware.
The lunatic is on the grass…
Phil Copson says
Very true. Except that he SHOULD be allowed around power-tools as often as possible…
somehistory says
That’s funny. Thanks for the morning laugh.
Phil Copson says
Waters is an bitter old man, angry at his imminent passing and devoting his last days to pulling the pillars down on top of everyone else before he goes. Like most musicians, comics etc he did whatever he was going to do by the time he 25, and once the talent runs out, spends the next half-century banging on about how great he once was.
(I wonder if the correct definition of a gentleman should be “Somebody who could write Prog Rock – but doesn’t….”)
“Comfortably Dumb” (with no apologies to Roger Waters)
“Hey you! Have you lost your vital spark? Are you frightened of the dark? Can you hear me?
Hey you! Is it just the drugs and booze – makes you want to kill the Jews? Do you fear me?
Hey you! Are you feeling good inside – as you call for genocide? We see it clearly! ” etc etc
Phil Copson says
Great news – Roger Water’s concert in Hamburg, Germany has been cancelled by the city authorities on the grounds of Water’s anti-Semitism.
(Didn’t know until this article that his hatred of Israel leads him to fly giant inflatable pigs at his concerts with a Star of David emblazoned on them. That is border-line insanity. What were his crew thinking that they went along with this?)