PLATFORM : A Gift of Music, of Food for the Spirit

It’s very important for the people of Israel, especially at the time of this conflict when a lot of people have been leaving, that a few of us have gone back in solidarity--that meant a lot to them. It was a great morale booster.

Foreigners were leaving because their governments told them to. And a lot of Israelis left also. You can’t blame them--people with children are afraid.

Because of the danger now, there are no concerts possible. During the other wars, we were giving two concerts a day--in 1973 we gave literally 12 concerts a week.

The cities were safe in those wars. Now the cities are not safe and therefore you can’t expect 3,000 people with gas masks to suddenly run to a shelter.

We did tape a television concert just to play to the country. But for that one concert we started recording at 9:30 in the morning. On the dot at 4:30, I had to let (the musicians) go, not because of any union rules but because people had to be home by 5:30 in order to be closed in by 6. I don’t know how many orchestras, an hour and a half before the missiles start falling, would still be playing.

We told ourselves, before the day’s work started, we’re playing this in lieu of so many concerts that we cannot perform. The Israeli public needs music. It is really spiritual food for them. I’m very glad we could do it.

As for support from abroad, people are responding with mixed feelings. The Germans (who are supplying military equipment, including defensive missiles) are doing it I think rather magnanimously. The mixed feelings are that German firms did sell the poison gas to Iraq. German firms did build the impregnable bunkers that Hussein is hiding in. Of course it was not the German government that did that, but certainly somebody must have known. So feelings are mixed, but not only in Israel--everybody has those feelings. Personally I think it’s very nice of Germany to lend a helping hand at the moment.

Israel is a polarized country in peacetime. Right now they are quite unified, I must say. It’s unfortunate that it takes all this to unify the country, as far as their thinking is concerned. But basically the liberal side of Israel, a little less than half of the country, is something that the (U.S.) media just doesn’t report enough. That part of Israel does want settlement with the Palestinians. It seems the hard-liners everywhere are more interesting to report about.

Mehta plans to return to Israel later this month and in March will lead the Israeli Philharmonic, with which he holds the position of “music director for life,” on a three-week U.S. tour.