It isn’t just singling out Israel for special opprobrium that is problematic about BDS. “BDS is the modern anti-Semitism, because it focuses only on Israel, the only Jewish state,” Abraham Neguise, a member of Knesset from the Likud Party said. Chavez responded by denying he was an anti-Semite, but acknowledging, “I’m just anti-Israel.” Lauder retorted, “Who do you think lives in Israel, martians?” Lauder mentioned that he heard Chavez was an anti-Semite. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, summed up that implication as he recalled meeting then-president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, in 2008. The extreme focus of Waters and, more generally, the BDS campaign on Israel, and the implication of that focus, is another theme of Wish You Weren’t Here. I don’t know him too well but just in terms of political dialogue, to be so focused on Israel – Israel is quite a decent place – even if you don’t like some things about it, is unhinged,” Akiva Tor, who works for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said. I think he’s got some sort of problem with us. “I’m kind of sad about it, because I love Pink Floyd, and I like what they represent on the music scene. Waters’ artistry is also cause for regret of the cause he has championed. Tears for Fear was just there, Guns ‘n Roses … these are major, major international artists and all of this completely frustrates Roger Waters, because he believes so firmly in his cause and, so really what we have to do is expose Roger Waters for being someone who holds extremist views.” Referring to 2017, Renzer added, “this summer has been one of the most active concert seasons, with some of the biggest artists in the world performing there, from Aerosmith to Justin Bieber.
“The reality is that the boycott movement is not succeeding, and major artists go to Israel and are continuing to go to Israel,” Renzer said. Perhaps that lack of credibility is why, despite Waters’s best efforts, major acts continue coming to Israel.
However, Renzer notes that whatever credibility Waters has musically, he loses it due to his saying of “some pretty extreme things,” such as charging that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is worse than Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews. “Someone who is going to take those kinds of extreme points of view, is someone who doesn’t really have credibility,” Renzer observed. Waters’ artistry is an important part of this story as David Renzer, the CEO of Spirit Music and co-founder of Creative Community for Peace said, “We have to take him seriously in that he is still one of the top-drawing artists in the world, he comes from a legendary band, Pink Floyd, and, so he comes with a lot of credibility in terms of his track record in music.” Whenever an artist announces an intent to visit Israel, Waters will target him and pressure him not to perform in Israel, using that credibility. This is one of the themes running through the film: the contrast between the artist and his beliefs.
Somewhere in the middle of the movie Wish you Weren’t Here, Ian Halperin’s devastating critique of Roger Waters and the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz noted that Waters not only targets Israel, but also uses blatantly anti-Semitic imagery, and concludes that Waters is “a good singer and a horrible bigot.”