Disturbed’s David Draiman Slams Roger Waters and “His Nazi Comrades” for Israel Boycott
David Draiman’s politics have always been questionable, but the Disturbed frontman has kept relatively quiet in recent years after his all caps social network tirades became the stuff of legends. He even endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 U.S. presidential race!
But, as is often the case with American Jews, Israel is the one bugaboo that can be very, very divisive, and Draiman — who is of Jewish descent and has vocally supported Israel in the past — has some things to say about the current state of things in that country, specifically Roger Waters’ ongoing refusal to perform there.
Is anyone else as tickled as I am by the idea of Rogers Waters becoming aware of who David Draiman is? Anyway…
Here’s what Draiman said when asked his views on artists who boycott Israel:
“To elaborate a little bit on it, besides just my aggressive stance against it – the reasoning that no matter what side of the fence you sit on politically… And look, I don’t think anybody in any country always agrees with everything their country does. I don’t, but I’m a very, very strong supporter of Israel forever and for our people. And regardless of whether it’s Israel or anywhere else, boycotting an entire society and an entire people based on the actions of its government is absolutely ridiculous. And it doesn’t accomplish anything.
“You can’t accomplish anything in terms of trying to create peace, in terms of trying to create understanding by shutting things off. There has to be open roads of communication. You build bridges, you don’t knock them down. And music and entertainment is the perfect way to bridge that gap. And the very notion that Waters and the rest of his Nazi comrades decide that this is the way to go ahead and foster change is absolute lunacy and idiocy — absolute.”
Draiman certainly has a point that penalizing the people of a country for the actions of their shitty government is pointless. I’d be quite miffed if bands refused to perform in the U.S. because of something Trump said or did; he does not represent all Americans, or even close, and robbing non-Trump supporting Americans of a meaningful and enriching concert experience on that premise accomplishes nothing. Presumably there are a ton of Israelis who strongly condemn the actions of their conservative government, and I’d venture that most Pink Floyd fans fall into that category. So unless Waters has an issue with generating taxes for Israel through his performance or something like that I’m not quite sure what the problem is. It’s not like Israel is going to suddenly stop settling the West Bank because its citizens couldn’t hear “Money” performed live.
That said, David Draiman is a fucking idiot for bringing Nazis into this conversation. How tonedeaf could one possibly be? Just… wow. I cannot believe he went there.
He’s also way off-base in insinuating that Waters’ decision to boycott Israel is rooted in anti-Semitism, as anyone who knows even a little about Waters’ long history of politics will tell you. That’s the same kind of logic that led to Rep. Ilhan Omar coming under fire for her completely fair and valid criticisms of Israel; criticism ≠ anti-Semitism!
David, you’re drunk, go home. Kindly go back to keeping your yap shut. How did you feel about Bernie’s pro-Palestinian platform when you endorsed him in 2016?
Disturbed are scheduled to perform in Israel in July, by the way.
