Roger Waters: Up Against the Wall

The fabled 92 Street Y in Manhattan has suddenly cancelled an upcoming talk with former Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters, apparently due to his criticism of Israel (and support of the boycott movement and helping to get Stevie Wonder to cancel a concert etc.)   See story here from the not exactly unbiased Jewish Daily Forward.   As usual, critical of Israel="anti-Semitic."  This story, however, suggests that it was Waters who pulled out (though after protests).  Stay tuned.

UPDATE  Waters has now commented on Facebook.  He writes he had asked for a re-scheduling, it was announced for June, then he got message that it was axed.  He asked for a reason and has gotten none.   He posts:

I have since been made aware of rumblings on the net suggesting that resistance in the local Jewish community to my coming engagement may have had something to do with its cancellation. If that be the case it saddens me. In these troubled times, opportunities for serious, measured discourse are too precious to be discarded on the altar of sectarian prejudice. Not to talk is not an option.

Also our conversation at the 92Y would not necessarily have needed to be restricted to our hopes for just and peaceful outcomes for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. I have other interests, we could have talked about how Pink Floyd got its name, or whether David and I will ever get back together (sorry, irony) or suicide rates among returning veterans or Las Madres de Malvinas, or the missing in Mexico, or the concept of Us and Them.

To bundle up in our dread beliefs serves us not at all.  Not to talk is not an option.

Greg Mitchell's new book on Iraq and media malpractice is "So Wrong for So Long."