Roger Waters Pens Scarlett Letter

Hey look. Roger Waters posted his frustrations on Facebook.

And I see he has questions for Scarlett Johansson after she bravely took a stand for what’s right and not what’s fashionable.

In the past days I have written privately to Neil Young (once) and to Scarlett Johanson (a couple of times). Those letters will remain private.

Sadly, I have received no reply from either.

And so I write this note on my Facebook page somewhat in bewilderment.

Neil? I shall ponder all of this long and hard. We don’t really know each other, but, you were always one of my heroes, I am confused.

Scarlett? Ah, Scarlett. I met Scarlett a year or so ago, I think it was at a Cream reunion concert at MSG. She was then, as I recall, fiercely anti Neocon, passionately disgusted by Blackwater (Dick Cheney’s private army in Iraq), you could have been forgiven for thinking that here was a young woman of strength and integrity who believed in truth, human rights, and the law and love. I confess I was somewhat smitten. There’s no fool like an old fool.

A few years down the line, Scarlett’s choice of Soda Stream over Oxfam is such an act of intellectual, political, and civil about face, that we, all those of us who care about the downtrodden, the oppressed, the occupied, the second class, will find it hard to rationalize.

I would like to ask that younger Scarlett a question or two. Scarlett, just for one example, are you aware that the Israeli government has razed to the ground a Bedouin village in the Negev desert in Southern Israel 63 times, the last time being on the 26th of December 2013. This village is the home to Bedouin. The Bedouin are, of course, Israeli citizens with full rights of citizenship. Well, not quite full rights, because in “Democratic” Israel there are fifty laws that discriminate against non Jewish citizens.

I am not going to attempt to list, either those laws (they are on the statute book in the Knesset for all to research) or all the other grave human rights abuses of Israeli domestic and foreign policy. I would run out of space. But, to return to my friend Scarlett Johanson.

Scarlett, I have read your reposts and excuses, in them you claim that the Palestinian workers in the factory have equal pay, benefits and “Equal rights”. Really? Equal Rights? Do they?

Do they have the right to vote?

Do they have access to the roads?

Can they travel to their work place without waiting for hours to pass through the occupying forces control barriers?

Do they have clean drinking water?

Do they have sanitation?

Do they have citizenship?

Do they have the right not to have the standard issue kicking in their door in the middle of the night and taking their children away?

Do they have the right to appeal against arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment?

Do they have the right to re-occupy the property and homes they owned before 1948?

Do they have the right to an ordinary, decent human family life?

Do they have the right to self determination?

Do they have the right to continue to develop a cultural life that is ancient and profound?

If these questions put you in a quandary I can answer them for you. The answer is, NO, they do not.

The workers in The Soda Stream Factory do not have any of these rights.

So, what are the “equal rights” of which you speak?

Scarlett, you are undeniably cute, but if you think Soda Stream is building bridges towards peace you are also undeniably not paying attention.

Love
R.

So I decided to help out in answering.

Dearest Roger,

As of late you have clearly spiraled into the deep chasm of antisemitism without any hope of recovery. That’s your choice. But you also lead your sheep-like fans, hopelessly passing their time in the grassland awaaaaaaaay.

Here in the real world, cooperation leads to good things.  Sodastream is a great example of economic cooperation and the employees are very grateful. In fact SodaStream is just a microcosm of the good that can come from this thing called cooperation. But unfortunately, your support for BDS shows you have no interest whatsoever in anyone cooperating with anyone lest they be called normalizers or something.

Let’s take a look, and in doing so I’ll answer each one of your questions to Scarlett Johansson, and then maybe you can see that despite the constant belligerency of the Palestinians to accept that the single tiny little Jewish nation exists, there are those that desire cooperation and act on those desires.

Do they have the right to vote?

First of all, you have a tendency to mix up many issues here. Arabs in Israel clearly have the same rights as any citizen. Discrimination is illegal in Israel.

But obviously you are referring to the Palestinians under the Palestinian Authority. So. Yes. They have the right to vote for their leaders in the Palestinian Authority. But unfortunately, Mahmoud Abbas is on year 10 of his 4-year term. Palestinians would have the right to vote if the PA ever ran an election like democracies usually do once in a blue moon.

Besides, I don’t get it. You want Palestinians to be autonomous and to have their own state. Yet you expect Israel to give them the right to vote in the Israeli government? That’s like expecting America to give Canadians the right to vote for the US president.

Do they have access to the roads?

What kind of dumbassery is this? Access to roads? Do you see this sign?

This sign is to warn Israelis not to enter a Palestinian road. Do you know why this sign is necessary? Because whenever an Israeli car enters a Palestinian village (even by accident) this happens.

You obviously have no problem with this do you?

Can they travel to their work place without waiting for hours to pass through the occupying forces control barriers?

Although I know you really couldn’t care less, but we must highlight that before Israel was forced to restrict movement of Palestinians, over 1000 Israeli civilians died in hundreds of terror attacks aimed at maximizing the death of any man, woman or child who happened to be there at the time. These terror attacks were, by the way, fully sponsored by our former partner in peace, Yasser Arafat.

If a couple of extra security steps to help stop these attacks really angers you I’d hate to see you at the airport.

But regarding workers, if they are Palestinians working in the PA controlled areas, then there’s no need to cross a checkpoint. Therefore there aren’t any.

But if they choose to work on the other side of the “border” – which Israel is under no obligation to allow, then obviously there’s a requirement for a security check. How is this any different than crossing ANY border in the world to work?

Now let me share with you a couple examples of the importance of security for Palestinians to go through security when employed in Israel.

1) The terrorist who bombed a bus in Tel Aviv in 2012 worked at McDonald’s in the Modi’in Mall.

2) Tomer Hazan worked in a Bat Yam restaurant with a Palestinian. He “befriended” him and went to his house where he was kidnapped and murdered.

3) Here is a Palestinian “ambulance”. On this particular ambulance attempting to cross into Israel, we have a woman and a child being used as a human shield and a powerful bomb that is destined to some crowded market to blow up Israelis.

Do they have clean drinking water?

Contrary to what you’ve been led to believe, Palestinian towns are not third world hellholes. And if they are, it’s not because of Israel’s doing. Any nation that receives as much aid money as the Palestinian people should be a G8 country by now, but when you choose to squander it and try to destroy your neighbour, it’s not money well spent, is it?

But alas, cooperation happens. And when it does, look at what you get: A joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian Water Sharing Agreement meant to build the infrastructure to give every single household fresh clean water.  Maybe you should start celebrating the positive cooperation between the parties of the conflict, instead of either ignoring them or writing them off as inadmissible to your hateful court.

Do they have sanitation?

Same agreement as above.

Do they have citizenship?

As a reminder, once upon a time, every single Arab between the “river and the sea” was given a chance to be Israeli citizens. They flatly rejected it then and they continue to reject it now. This question is just dumb. It’s like you want Palestinians to be completely autonomous and have their own state but still allow them to vote in another country, cross freely over the border even with the completely legitimate security issues and to have citizenship in another country? Are you making these demands with all countries or just the Jewish one?

Do they have the right not to have the standard issue kicking in their door in the middle of the night and taking their children away?

If you really think the Israeli army knocks down doors because there’s nothing better to do, obviously you think the fact that these “children” were attempting to murder Israelis a few hours earlier is irrelevant. Next question.

Do they have the right to appeal against arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment?

Over 1200 prisoners have been released in good faith by the Israelis just to advance peace talks. Most have actually masterminded terror attacks that have killed scores of people in cold blood. None have expressed remorse. All were hailed as heroes by the PA. And the children are taught to look to them as inspiration. Are you OK with this?

Do they have the right to re-occupy the property and homes they owned before 1948?

Do the 800,000 Jews AND THEIR DESCENDANTS have the right to “reoccupy” the property and homes that were forcibly confiscated from them in all the Arab countries before taking refuge in Israel? Did you know the Jewish population is 0 in 90% of all Arab countries?

Do you think it was a good idea for the Arab nations to compel the Arabs to flee their homes, leaving only the Jews so they could more easily annihilate the new-born state of Israel?

Do you think it was a good idea for all the Arab Nations to have discriminatory laws against Palestinian refugees for 65 years for the sole purpose of perpetuating the crisis instead of resettling them like in normal refugee situations?

Do they have the right to an ordinary, decent human family life?

Oh for goodness sake.

Do they have the right to self determination?

Who? Arabs? They don’t?

You can’t be talking about Palestinians. Be honest to yourself. “Palestinians” are Arabs who invented a “nation” only to serve a political purpose. To eliminate the Jew from the territory.

That being said, do you think Jews have this right? When Jews demand this right suddenly it’s “Zionist Apartheid”?

Do they have the right to continue to develop a cultural life that is ancient and profound?

Can you let me know whose development of a cultural life is being stymied in any way?

The workers in The Soda Stream Factory do not have any of these rights.

You speak for these workers?  I don’t know I’d rather let them speak for themselves.

http://www.israellycool.com/2014/02/02/roger-waters-pens-scarlett-letter/