It's not as clear cut as the headline implies, but for what it's worth:

Sir Paul McCartney to rock Israel 43 years after ban
Last Updated: 6:47AM BST 18/07/2008

Sir Paul McCartney is set to make pop history by playing his first gig in Israel, 43 years after the Beatles were banned from performing in the country.

In 1965 McCartney, 66, and his fellow Beatles were turned away by Israel's then education minister, David Zarzevski, who thought that a show by the band might corrupt the minds of the nation's youth.

However earlier this year, Israel's ambassador to Britan sent apology letters to McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr - as well as the relatives of deceased Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon - inviting them to play as part of the country's 60th birthday celebrations.

Ron Prosor, apologised for the "misunderstanding" and wrote: "There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform."

"We missed a chance to learn from the most influential musicians of the decade."

McCartney, 66, is now said to be on the verge of signing a deal to play to 250,000 in Tel Aviv this September. He will either play at the nation's football station Ramat Gan or put on an open air gig in Hayarkon Park.

A source reveals, "Paul is desperate to put Israel on the map of places he's performed.

"He is pushing to make it happen, although the security issues are a real threat."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2306615/Sir-Paul-McCartney-to-rock-Israel-43-years-after-ban.html

Should he have had plans to play there at all, they're cancelled.

Why are his plans cancelled?

Quoted from Jane

Why are his plans cancelled?

This isn't very helpful, but for what it's worth.... :)

McCartney cancels planned TA concert
By Haaretz Staff
August 14

Paul McCartney will not be performing in Israel next month as planned, Globes reported yesterday.

The superstar former Beatle was supposed to arrive in Israel for a single performance in late September before a projected crowd of 250,000. Sources close to the no-show show said recently that McCartney's manager was seen scouting a location in one of the large parks in central Israel.

The concert was reportedly slated to take place at Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv or at Ramat Gan Stadium, and media reports last week said tickets would cost between NIS 600 and an unprecedented NIS 1500.

Producer Dudu Zerzevsky was working on bringing McCartney to Israel, but negotiations apparently reached a stalemate. Zerzevsky declined to comment.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1010923.html

Thats a pity.... the Israeli new year is coming ... would have a great new year treat for the Israelis ....

Maybe: big crowds and Israel. Seems like an explosive combination.

^ Sadly true.  :-/

Thank you for the information, Geoff. New Year and Paul would be perfect!

And the saga continues.... Once again, the headline writer is jumping the gun, because having negotiations "apparently back on track" is hardly the same thing as having a finished deal, and the "part of a world tour" bit in the body of the story reeks of speculation and rumor, too. Still, the Quebec and Anfield shows could be seen as dry runs for a tour this fall; and if Paul is going to go on the road, I suppose the announcement should come soon.

We'll finally get to hold Paul's hand
By DAVID BRINN

The long and winding road that had Paul McCartney on the way to Israel, only to encounter a roadblock during negotiations, is apparently back on track. While an official announcement probably won't be made until Tuesday - the same day tickets are expected to go on sale - it's all but a done deal that the former Beatle will perform the biggest pop concert in Israel's history on September 25 at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv.

The show, produced by promoter Dudu Zerzevsky, is expected to cost upward of $4 million to produce and require a 100-person production team, an extra-large stage and expansive sound system, and additional touches such as two vegetarian kitchens at the show's location for the anti-carnivore musician.

The Tel Aviv show is expected to be part of a world tour by McCartney, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most successful musician. According to reports earlier this year, the tour would consist of more than 100 shows and McCartney would receive nearly $2m. for each. But as of Saturday night, McCartney's official Web site didn't list any upcoming shows, including the Tel Aviv concert.

According to British media reports, McCartney, 66, has invited his girlfriend, 47-year-old Long Islander Nancy Shevell, to accompany him on the tour. The couple just finished a monthlong road trip across the famed Route 66 in the US, where they were spotted by shocked fans at campsites, gas stations and motels.

"Paul is excited about going on tour," a source told the Daily Express. "Initially, he wanted to go it alone with just his band and road crew, with family flying out every now and again. But now he wants Nancy to be with him all the way."

Earlier this year, McCartney divorced Heather Mills, 41, following a stormy trial.

The concert comes 43 years after The Beatles were booked and then denied the proper permits to perform in Israel on the grounds that their music might corrupt the country's morals.

Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor sent a letter to McCartney and the other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, earlier this year inviting them to perform in Israel for its 60th birthday.

"We should like to take this opportunity to correct the historic omission which to our great regret occurred in 1965 when you were invited to Israel," Prosor wrote.

McCartney performed in Montreal last month for the city's 400th anniversary, putting on a two-and-a-half hour show with his spunky backing band that included a generous offering of Beatles classics like "Eleanor Rigby," "Penny Lane," "Michelle," and hits from his former band Wings such as "Band on the Run" and "Jet."

Ticket prices have not been announced yet, but expect to pay top shekel to see this living legend. And expect it to be worth every agora.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218626430&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

New rumours about a concert in Israel, but still not confirmed by MPL.

And also rumours about a concert on the isle of Tenerife on December 6th. Paul is going exotic!

Paul McCartney Puts ‘Friendship First’ In Israel

Music Icon Set To Rock Israel 43 Years After Ban Historic ‘Friendship First’ Concert Announced
Hayarkon Park, Tel Aviv, Israel, 25th September 2008

43 years after being banned by the Israeli government, Paul McCartney today announces his ‘Friendship First’ concert in Israel. Following months of feverish speculation the wait is finally over as music’s most revered star announces that he will be playing in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday 25th September 2008, for the first time ever. This is in keeping with a series of special one-off unique shows that Paul has performed this year in places he has never visited before. Israel will finally get the chance to experience a night of music and history Macca-style; the night they have been waiting decades for.

Paul McCartney holds true the key principals of friendship – loyalty and respect – and the ‘Friendship First’ concert is an opportunity for people to celebrate these values whilst having a memorable night of fun and rock n’ roll.

Looking ahead to his first trip to Tel Aviv, Paul Said, “I’ve heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another. We are planning to have a great time and a great evening. We can’t wait to get out there and rock.”

Paul McCartney has nearly visited Israel on two previous occasions. The first was with The Beatles at the height of Beatlemania in the mid 60s, however at the time because Israel was short of foreign currency the promoter was unable to raise sufficient funds. After applying to a government committee for help the promoter’s appeal was declined as it was thought The Beatles might corrupt their youth. Some even believed that artistically The Beatles were not of a high enough standard! The second miss was with Wings in the late 70s, when the shows were cancelled after problems with the venue.

Earlier this year, Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, apologised to The Beatles during a trip to Liverpool for the ‘misunderstanding’. In a letter he wrote: “There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform.”

2008 has already seen Paul McCartney play a number of special one off concerts, whilst making international headlines and taking him to places he’s never been before. In June he received a hero’s welcome as he rocked the city of Liverpool when he played at Anfield Stadium as part of the city’s celebrations for the European Capital Of Culture. A couple of weeks later and Paul performed a spectacular free show, the ‘Independence Concert’, to over 350,000 people in Kiev’s Independence Square which was the largest outdoor music event in the history of the Ukraine. July then took Paul to the city of Quebec for yet another huge headline-making event as he performed to 300,000 people in the city’s national park, The Plains Of Abraham, to help celebrate Quebec’s 400th anniversary. Paul also found the time (only just though!) to join Billy Joel on stage for the ‘Last Play At Shea’ show in July, marking the last show ever at New York’s famous Shea Stadium. The Beatles were the first band to perform at Shea Stadium in 1965, which went down in history as the first ever stadium rock show. Speaking after his appearance at Shea, Paul commented, “It was great to complete the circle, starting there with The Beatles and then finishing this time round with ‘Let It Be’.”

If you add the attendance figures of the last 3 special shows together, Paul has performed to well over 650,000 people which is the equivalent of filling London’s O2 Arena over 36 times.

http://www.paulmccartney.com/news.php#1425/2008-08

Quoted from Bobber

And also rumours about a concert on the isle of Tenerife on December 6th. Paul is going exotic!

I wonder if he's thought of Malia?   ;D

Some Britons Too Unruly for Resorts in Europe

By SARAH LYALL
Published: August 23, 2008

MALIA, Greece — Even in a sea of tourists, it is easy to spot the Britons here on the northeast coast of Crete, and not just from the telltale pallor of their sun-deprived northern skin.

British tourists have caused havoc at the Malia resort.

They are the ones, the locals say, who are carousing, brawling and getting violently sick. They are the ones crowding into health clinics seeking morning-after pills and help for sexually transmitted diseases. They are the ones who seem to have one vacation plan: drinking themselves into oblivion.

“They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit,” Malia’s mayor, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, said in an interview. “It is only the British people — not the Germans or the French.”

Malia is the latest and currently most notorious in a long list of European resorts full of young British tourists on packaged tours offering cheap alcohol and a license to behave badly. In Magaluf and Ibiza, Spain; in Ayia Napa, Cyprus; and in the Greek resorts of Faliraki, Kavos and Laganas as well as Malia, the story is the same: They come, they drink, they wreak havoc.

“The government of Britain has to do something,” Mr. Lagoudakis said. “These people are giving a bad name to their country.”

They are also hurting themselves in the process. A recent report published by the British Foreign Office, “British Behavior Abroad,” noted that in a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007, 602 Britons were hospitalized and 28 raped in Greece, and that 1,591 died in Spain and 2,032 were arrested there.

The report did not distinguish between medical cases and arrests associated with drunkenness and those that had nothing to do with it. But it did say that “many arrests are due to behavior caused by excessive drinking.”

So it would seem. Reports of scandalous incidents rumble on regularly here and elsewhere, helping to cement Britain’s reputation as the largest exporter of inebriated hooligans in Europe.

Earlier this summer, flying home to Manchester from the Greek island of Kos, a pair of drunken women yelling “I need some fresh air” attacked the flight attendants with a vodka bottle and tried to wrestle the airplane’s emergency door open at 30,000 feet. The plane diverted hastily to Frankfurt, and the women were arrested.

In Laganas, on the Greek island of Zakinthos, where a teenager from Sheffield died after a drinking binge this summer, more than a dozen British women were charged in July with prostitution after taking part, the authorities said, in an alfresco oral sex contest.

More alarmingly, a 20-year-old British tourist partied with her sister and a friend into the early hours in Malia also in July, then returned to her hotel room and — although she had denied being pregnant — gave birth. Her companions say they returned later to find the baby dead; she has been charged with infanticide.

And in Dubai, also this summer, a British man and woman who met during a drinking bout were arrested and charged with having sex on a beach, after repeatedly shouting abuse at a police officer who ordered them to stop.

All of which leads to a natural question: Why?

“I think that in their country, they are like prisoners and they want to feel free,” said Niki Pirovolaki, who works in a bakery on Malia’s main street and often encounters addled Britons heading back to their hotels — “if they can remember where they are staying,” she said.

David Familton, a Briton who works in a club here, said that it was a question of emotional comfort. “It’s because of British culture — no one can relax, so they become inebriated to be the people they want to be,” he said.

Worried about the increase in crimes and accidents afflicting drunken tourists, the British consulate in Athens has begun several campaigns, using posters, beach balls and coasters with snappy slogans, to encourage young visitors to drink responsibly.

“When things do go wrong, they go wrong in quite a big way,” said Alison Beckett, the director of consular services. “What we’re trying to do here is reduce some of these avoidable accidents where they have so much to drink that they fall off balconies and are either killed or need huge operations.”

More here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/world/europe/24crete.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Paul's going to play the concert next month on my birthday!

For whoever is interested: tickets for Tel Aviv are for sale on leaan.co.il
Funny thing is that the concert is (I think) still not confirmed by MPL.

Quoted from Bobber

Funny thing is that the concert is (I think) still not confirmed by MPL.

#11 above is taken from Paul's website:  :)

http://www.paulmccartney.com/news.php#1425/2008-08


One more link:

Israel, After 43 Years, Is Ready for Beatlemania

By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: August 27, 2008
New York Times

JERUSALEM — In 1965, when Israel had no television, and public entertainment consisted largely of kibbutz songfests celebrating the wheat harvest, the Beatles, already international celebrities, were booked for a concert here. To young Israeli fans, it seemed an impossible dream.

The Beatles in London in 1965 before flying to the United States. They were also booked for Israel, but the concert was canceled. The band was deemed to have “an insufficient artistic level.”

And so it was. The official permission required to withdraw precious foreign currency to pay the band was denied because a ministerial committee feared the corrupting influence of four long-haired Englishmen singing about pleasure.

As the committee report put it, “The Beatles have an insufficient artistic level and cannot add to the spiritual and cultural life of the youth in Israel.”

Since then, especially in recent years, Israel has expressed embarrassment about the episode and tried to make amends. Last January, it sent a letter from its London embassy to the remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, asking forgiveness for the “missed opportunity” to have the band that “shaped the minds of a generation, to come to Israel and perform before the young generation in Israel who admired you and continues to admire you.” The artists were asked to consider again coming to perform.

There was little progress until recently, but now Mr. McCartney has been booked for a huge outdoor concert in Tel Aviv on Sept. 25. And nearly everything about the event — the $8 million price tag borne by a high-flying Israeli financier who expects to turn a profit, the tickets selling for hundreds of dollars that are being gobbled up through Internet sales, indeed its very existence — is a parable of a nation transformed.

The promised concert has led many here to reflect on the cocooned simplicity of life only four decades ago.

“I had just gotten my first LP record for my bar mitzvah from my two best friends, and it was by the Beatles,” recalled Yoel Esteron, 55, editor of the daily business newspaper Calcalist. “And then they canceled the concert. We still had no television and only official radio stations. We were living in a cultural ghetto; the country was Bolshevik. Teenagers and their parents debated it for weeks. Every teenager was furious.”

For Yossi Sarid, a leftist former Parliament member and government minister, the arrival of Mr. McCartney is an opportunity to reminisce and set the record straight about his father, Yaakov Sarid, who was the director general of the Education and Culture Ministry and an official involved in canceling the original concert.

In a front-page article in the newspaper Haaretz on Monday, Yossi Sarid said the real cause of the cancellation was a rivalry between impresarios at the time. One had been offered a Beatles concert in 1962, before their star had risen, by the mother of the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, and had turned them down. When a competitor booked them three years later, the first impresario used his government connections to keep the needed money from being disbursed.

“I can assure you that my father had never heard of the Beatles,” Mr. Sarid said in a follow-up telephone conversation. “The promoter of course didn’t come to the government and say, ‘I don’t like this other guy and I don’t want him to get the money.’ He said it is a lousy group and will corrupt the spirit of the wonderful, brilliant, pure Israeli youngsters. He exploited their ignorance.”

Israel’s leaders in the early 1960s knew almost nothing of global popular culture. There is a famous story told of David Ben-Gurion, the founding prime minister, when he read a headline in a mass-selling paper that said Elizabeth Taylor, then among the world’s most famous women, was very ill. “Who’s Elizabeth Taylor?” Ben-Gurion is said to have asked.

A glance at the printed tickets for the canceled 1965 Beatles concert, copies of which still exist as collectors’ items, and can be viewed on the Internet, tell their own story of a bygone era.

The marked price, in the lira currency, then under enormous pressure and now defunct, amounted to about $7.

The Hebrew name for the group printed on the tickets is also worth noting. The performers may have been universally known as the Beatles, but in Israel, then still trying earnestly to create a culture buffered from foreign words and influence, they were Hipushiot Haketzev, or the Beat Beetles (like the bugs).

It was a laborious if endearing effort that no one would bother with today in a country where English permeates daily speech (“sorry,” “whatever”) and advertising logos, and where many official Hebrew names for new developments simply do not enter the mainstream vocabulary.

Mr. Sarid noted that while the official Hebrew name for the Beatles then was Hipushiot Haketzev, many adults dismissed them as Hipushiot Hazevel, or “dung beetles.”

Mr. Esteron, the editor, like others, said the change in 40 years from an isolated, egalitarian and agrarian society to a market-driven, plugged-in, high-tech haven of enormous wealth — and some alarming poverty — had been dizzying and somehow oddly embodied by the story of its relationship with the Beatles.

Mr. Sarid said he remained grateful to the musicians. Thanks to their canceled concert, he said, his father, a great educator and modest man whose accomplishments would have long ago been forgotten, has earned an eternal place in Israeli history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/world/middleeast/28beatles.html

^ Oh blimey... I never knew about the ban :B (and I used to live there, except I wasn't into the Beatles back then :o )
Thanks for posting the articels Geoff and Bobber :)

I hope everything goes alright for that concert (both in terms of it happening and in terms of safety/security...)

McCartney to not cancel Israel gig
Sep 12, 2008 11:09 PM

Legendary Beatles star Paul McCartney said he was pressed to cancel his upcoming performance in Israel, but reassured Israeli fans in comments published he would go ahead with the planned concert.
  
"I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel," McCartney said in an interview with Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth.
  
Pro-Palestinian groups have frequently called on international academics and prominent cultural figures to boycott Israel over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
  
Jewish groups have condemned cultural and academic boycotts as anti-Semitic.
  
McCartney will perform hits from his Beatles days and his solo career during a September 25 concert in Tel Aviv as part of a series of shows that has taken McCartney to cities he never visited before.
  
Asked about how members of the Beatles, one of the most popular bands in rock history, felt when the Israeli government scrapped their concert in 1965 on the grounds it could corrupt the nation's youth, McCartney said it was "a bit insulting, the thought we could corrupt the youth."
  
"The Beatles had a pretty positive influence on the world and only regimes that wanted to control their peoples were afraid of us. We mostly laughed at the Israeli government decision," McCartney said in comments translated into Hebrew.
  
Another account in Israel's Haaretz newspaper last month pinned the cancellation of the 1965 Beatles concert on a rift between two concert promoters.
  
McCartney said in comments published on his website last month he looks forward to this chance to perform in Israel.

"I've heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another," he said.
Source: Reuters

Sir Paul McCartney Faces 'Sacrifice' At Israel Concert

An Islamist militant warns...

    * by Jason Gregory
    * 14 September 2008
   Sir Paul McCartney Faces 'Sacrifice' At Israel Concert

    Sir Paul McCartney will have “sacrifice operatives” waiting for him if he plays a concert in Israel this month, an Islamist militant leader has warned.

Omar Bakri said the former Beatle had become the “enemy of every muslim”.

Sir Paul is due to headline a concert in Tel Aviv on September 25th, which forms part of the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

But his participation has drawn criticism from some political bodies and extremists.

Speaking to the Express, Bakri, who now resides in Lebanon after being exiled from the UK, said: “Our enemy’s friend is our enemy.

“Thus Paul McCartney is the enemy of every Muslim. We have what we call ‘sacrifice’ operatives who will not stand by while he joins in a celebration of their oppression.

“If he values his life Mr McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

Earlier this week, the former Beatle refused to bow to any threats, saying he does what he thinks and has many “friends who support Israel.”

The Beatles were banned by Israel in 1965 because the country's government feared that their music would corrupt young citizens.

But the ban was lifted this year by Israel's ambassador to the UK, who called it a “misunderstanding”.

Would Paul become a Catholic Martyr ? if anything were to happen to him by playing this concert .

it might be the most stupid thing he has ever done, besides marrying heather mills

Quoted from The Swine

it might be the most stupid thing he has ever done, besides marrying heather mills

You might be right , it's making me feel very uneasy something might happen to him .
I'm waiting for a fatwa to be issued , this could get very messy .
I understand it's a principal thing for him , but i hope he's thinking about the trouble it could cause for his family and the distress it would cause to us fans if anything happend to him .

Quoted from Bobber

Speaking to the Express, Bakri, who now resides in Lebanon after being exiled from the UK, said: “Our enemy’s friend is our enemy.

“Thus Paul McCartney is the enemy of every Muslim. We have what we call ‘sacrifice’ operatives who will not stand by while he joins in a celebration of their oppression.

“If he values his life Mr McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

I wondered when one of these malevolent animals would stick its nose out of its cave and start howling. I'm surprised it took this long, though: too busy reading Self Detonation For Dummies, maybe?

So why were the Beatles banned from playing in Israel in the sixties? It was Cliff Richard's fault, apparently:  ;D


Truth after 42 years: Beatles banned for fear of influence on youth
· Cliff Richard's concert had shocked Israel authorities
· State launched global investigation into group


Forty-two years after Israel banned John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr from playing to the nation, the truth about its Beatlephobia has finally been revealed.

Still reeling from the sight of Israeli teenagers swooning to the tunes of Cliff Richard in 1963, Israel's publicly appointed guardians of good taste and morality, the interdepartmental committee for authorising the importation of foreign artists, refused their entry.

Determined to prevent another outbreak of mass hysteria, the 13 member committee of politicians and civil servants whose job it was to assess the artistic merit of foreign acts resolved to be "vigilant".

As a result, the 1964 request to bring to Israel, the Rhythm Beatles - as they were called in Hebrew - was roundly rejected in the committee's resolution 691, which reads: "Resolved: Not to allow the request for fear that the performances by the Beatles are liable to have a negative influence on the [country's] youth."

The promoters appealed against the decision, so the committee launched a global investigation of the awesome foursome.

After soliciting information from Israeli embassies and the foreign ministry's cultural relations department, it discovered that the world was afflicted with Beatlemania.

Israel's media lambasted the group, urging the committee to protect the nation's youth as Cliff Richard had already given them "a bad name". One paper reported that committee members had been listening to the "yeah-yeah-yeah howls which are capable of striking dead a real beetle".

Another reported the head of the education ministry as saying: "There is no musical or artistic experience here but a sensual display that arouses feelings of aggression replete with sexual stimuli."

At the conclusion of its inquiry, the committee wrote, in resolution 709, that it would refuse entry because "the band has no artistic merit" and its performances "cause hysteria and mass disorder among young people".

Several versions of the story, blaming the then prime minister, Golda Meir, a former education minister who had never heard of the Beatles, a jealous promoter who regretted turning down the Beatles for Richard, and even the finance ministry for allegedly refusing to allot the foreign currency required to underwrite the performance, have lingered.

But when the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, gave an official letter of apology to John Lennon's half-sister this year, Alon Gan, a history professor at Tel Aviv University, was inspired to investigate.

Gan, who revealed the story in the daily newspaper Haaretz, one week before McCartney is due to perform for the first time in the country, said the true story was that "Israel in the early 60s was afraid that from the west would come a bad wind of sex, alcohol and rock'n'roll".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/22/israelandthepalestinians.thebeatles

Stupid Cliff.

Paul has now arrived in Israel.

here's a bit of him on his arrival! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otMT2labk04

Saw a news report on Sky this morning , Nancy was stood behind Paul while he was talking to reporters .

I really wasn't following this story/this thread until recently.

I agree with the sentiments posted above - Paul is exposing himself to a lot more danger (getting blown up) than if he just stayed home. It seems that he is doing this at least to make a point for peace (really, how much does he need the exposure? His legacy is secure without this appearance).

I for one feel differently about Paul for doing this. No more shallow Paul, this is the real deal. I'm proud of him, if that doesn't sound too absurd.

Also, I think this is much more meaningful than a "bed-in" for peace. John needed that event to stay in the spotlight, he knew the reporters and photographers would come running for the chance to possibly see him expose his wienie, and Yoko her (barf4) . It doesn't really take a lot of Cojones, as they say down here, to bleat for peace from a room in the Amsterdam Hilton.

BTW - just to make sure this post doesn't go THAT way - I'm not a John hater, as a matter of fact when it comes down to it, despite all his horrible faults, I can't help but like him the best (probably like everyone around him felt, at least c. 1965 and sooner). This is just how I feel on THIS issue ...

Here's a letter to Paul from some Jewish Activist. He's a Paul basher to the extreme.  :-/

Dear Paul,

As someone who grew up in Liverpool, I read with sadness your that you were playing a gig in Tel Aviv, Israel on September 25th.

Your announcement is headed “My message is a peaceful one...” yet the very people who are the victims of unrelenting violence, house demolition, aerial bombardment, land confiscation and water shortages are opposed to you coming to Israel. I refer to the Palestinians.

Forty-three years ago, when the Beatles were banned from playing in Israel, I like most people thought of Israel as some kind of socialist experiment in the making. As someone who grew up as a Zionist, I believed that Israel had made the desert bloom and was surrounded by those whose only wish was to destroy it. Successive wars of conquest demolished these myths and in particular the relentless bombing of civilians in the Occupied Territories and Lebanon.

If we are honest Paul, where John Lennon led you followed. When John Lennon gave back the MBE you were forced to do likewise. When he was dead and buried you were happy to accept a gong, a Knighthood, from Her Majesty. When John wrote in support of the struggle for Irish freedom, with songs such as Bloody Sunday and Luck of the Irish, you penned Give Ireland Back to the Irish. When John paid the fines of demonstrators against the Springbok Tour, the South African Rugby squad, you kept quiet, your hands in your pockets.

It was always understood by most artists and entertainers that to play in South Africa was to endorse the Apartheid regime. Just like the

Palestinians today, Black South Africans asked that foreign musicians boycott the country not play in it. The same arguments apply today in relation to Israel. Or have you not heard of the Jewish only roads in the West Bank or the land confiscations or the denial of water to the Palestinian inhabitants?

It is therefore inexplicable that you should now decide to play in Israel, which like South Africa is also an apartheid state. As someone who is Jewish, I have the right any time I want to 'return' to that country, unlike Palestinians who were born and brought up there before being expelled.

Are you aware that discrimination against the Palestinians is not only systematic but the official policy of the Israeli Government in its attempt to preserve a Jewish majority in a Jewish state? That every aspect of public life - education, housing, social services - is divided into Jewish and non-Jewish? Even today, more than half of the Palestinians who weren't expelled in 1948 live in 'unrecognised' villages which are liable to immediate demolition as part of the programme of 'Judaification' in the Negev and Galilee? Some 93% of Israeli land is deemed 'national land' which cannot be sold, rented or leased to non-Jews.

As you yourself admit on your web-site, the original idea behind you playing came, not from the Palestinians or even Israelis opposed to the occupation, but the Israeli Ambassador in London, Ron Prossor, the official representative of a Government whose military enforces a ruthless regime of occupation in the West Bank and which has engaged in a starvation siege of Gaza. When Ronnie Kassrills, the Jewish minister in the ANC government, visited recently, he remarked that the situation of the Palestinians was far worse than anything that Black South Africans had experienced.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from your decision to play in Israel, especially given that your tour was cancelled only a few weeks ago, is that the most important question in your mind was the money you would receive for playing rather than any notions of peace. As recent publicity made clear, you have far more money at your disposal than any human being could spend in one lifetime. Do you really need the money that this concert will provide you? Has it not occurred to you that not only could you have afforded to make a small sacrifice, as have many other artists have done who are far poorer than you, but that you would have made a positive contribution towards bringing about a peaceful solution?

Perhaps the best comment that could be made about your decision to play in Israel is the title of a song which was addressed to you on John Lennon's Imagine.

**How do you sleep at night?**

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein

Quoted Text

It's been a long and winding road but when Sir Paul McCartney stepped onto the stage at Tel Aviv tonight his Israeli fans finally got to see their idol in concert.

Unlike the planned 1965 line-up his former bandmates John, Ringo and George weren't by his side, but they were in the minds, and on the t-shirts, of the ageing Beatles fans who flocked to see Sir Paul do his thing.

The 'decadent' Fab Four were banned from performing in 1965 by a conservative Israeli government concerned about the corrupting influence they would have on the country's youth.

But the teenagers they were protecting are now all grown up and brought their children and grandchildren along to share the music of their youth. Tens of thousands of them, some paying as much as £500 for the privilege, attended to watch the legendary left-handed guitarist belt out his tunes.

The show did not happen without incident, a £1.5million security operation was launched to protect  Sir Paul , with an astonishing 5,000 personnel watching over him during his stay. The security drive dwarfs the protection given to U.S. President George W Bush when he visited the nation.

It comes after extremists including radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed urged Sir Paul to cancel the controversial visit out 'of respect of the feelings of Muslims in Palestine'.

But after waiting four decades the singer did not heed the calls to stop the show. He said on his website that he hoped his concert at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park, which is being billed as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations, would 'reawaken' the idea of peace.
Tens of thousands of people, some paying as much as £500 for the privilege, attended to watch the legendary left-handed guitarist belt out his tunes tonight.

McCartney was accompanied on his visit to Christ's birthplace by girlfriend Nancy Shevell

He said: 'The world knows about the conflicts that have been in that region and I like to think that if I go to a place it becomes evident that my message is a peaceful one and I hope that the idea will spread.

'Music can help people to just calm them down. I also think it can be very interesting for change.

'Songs like We Shall Overcome have been very important for the civil rights movement so yeah, I think music is great and it can make changes.'

The 66-year-old, accompanied by his girlfriend Nancy Shevell, visited the Church of Nativity and a music school in Bethlehem yesterday.

Surrounded by bodyguards, his spontaneous stop-off at The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music surprised the students, who are aged between five and 14. McCartney chatted with the pupils and even joined in with rehearsals.

He said: 'I'd heard about the great work of the school so I was really interested to actually see it for myself.

'Music is a universal language and something everybody can unite over and enjoy together.

'The work they do here is inspiring and important. The students are from different backgrounds and the school offers the opportunity to people that might not normally be able to get this kind of expert education.

'As I'm in Israel I thought, "Well I'm not here everyday so I'd like to go and see some things," so I used the opportunity to come to Bethlehem.'
     

and some photos from the gig and his trip:


Tens of thousands of people, some paying as much as £500 for the privilege, attended to watch the legendary left-handed guitarist belt out his tunes tonight.







note nancy behind him!


McCartney poses with a group of young students during his visit to The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music

thanks for those!  :)

From the Beeb:

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has played his first gig in Israel in front of an estimated 40,000 cheering fans.

The 66-year-old singer kicked off the historic concert with the familiar Beatles' song Hello, Goodbye at Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park.

Some fans turned up wearing "I love Paul" and Beatles T-shirts.

Earlier the star said he was "not nervous, but excited" ahead of the gig, which comes 43 years after The Beatles were banned from performing in Israel.

Back in 1965 The Beatles were scheduled to perform, but were prevented taking the stage because of fears they could "corrupt the nation's youth".

'Message of peace'

Before Thursday's concert Sir Paul said: "You couldn't keep me off that stage." He shrugged off Palestinian pleas to boycott Israel in protest over its military and settlement activity.

"I was aware of the criticism," the ex-Beatle said. "But I thought it was best to go with a message of peace and find out myself what the situation was."

On stage he addressed fans in English but with a smattering of Hebrew, the Associated Press reported, wishing fans happy new year ahead of the Jewish holiday next week.

During Give Peace a Chance, he stopped and let fans sing the chorus, while fireworks lit the sky during Live and Let Die, AP said.

Since arriving in the region the singer has visited the town Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Sir Paul said he had hoped to visit a music school in the West Bank town of Ramallah but was forced to change his plans over security concerns.

Some 40,000 Israeli fans arrived to watch him perform at the concert, dubbed Friendship First.

Looking back, Sir Paul said the 1965 ban "didn't really faze" the Fab Four, but joked it had hit the mother of Brian Epstein, their Jewish manager, quite hard.

The star was in a more reflective mood, however, when he compared the barrier Israel is building in and around the West Bank to the Berlin war.

"I went through the Berlin Wall in the years when it was still standing and it was so symbolic," he said after passing through the barrier to get between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

"It's sad to think people can be physically divided like that. It's not good for anyone."

Israel says the barrier, which was declared illegal by the international court in the Hague in 2004, is for its security, but the Palestinians say it is a device to grab land.

Palestinian activists had asked Sir Paul to cancel the one-off gig because of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

But the performer - who said he was not "a political animal [but] a humanitarian" - said he "thought it was a good time to come and take a look at the situation".

wow! looks like a good show!

I am happy for Israel! (why did I leave...!)

Nice pictures Andy , that one of him coming through the doorway would make a great album cover ?

Good photos, Andy: thanks.  :)

Thanks Andy. Blimey, the man is getting old. I see he survived the gig after all.

thanks guys!  ;)
nice to see and hear that he was lighting candles for Peace! :)

and apparently he had more security than when George Bush visited Israil!