Rocking out under the Iron Dome + news update
What does a rock star do when his big concert is threatened by rockets? Leads a collective, symbolic FU to the terrorists. Plus, a few more points to understand what’s happening in Israel.
After a lot of deliberation, I went to the Aviv Geffen concert in Tel Aviv last night, with tickets I bought long before I knew there would be a war. Aside from Geffen’s planned pyrotechnics, there was a show in the sky, courtesy of Iron Dome. Here’s a little something I wrote on the train ride home at the end of the night. After that, a summary of the last couple of days of Operation Shield and Arrow. Shabbat shalom!
It was the most surreal moment I’ve ever witnessed at a concert - and I reviewed Lady Gaga for The Jerusalem Post.
There we were, tens of thousands of Aviv Geffen fans in Park Hayarkon, Israel’s biggest concert venue, singing and dancing like it was any other night.
But, of course, it wasn’t any other night; there’s a war on.
As the 90s rock icon reached the dramatic ending of his song “Hamichtav” (The Letter), two yellow dots appeared in the sky. They moved in a diagonal, upwards motion and disappeared behind some clouds before reappearing and exploding.
It was the Iron Dome, protecting Tel Aviv from missiles launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The audience applauded, and no offense to Geffen, who puts on a great show, it wasn’t for him.
Geffen finished the song - the show must go on, after all - before addressing the even more impressive show in the sky.
“I think it’s going to take me months to digest what happened,” Geffen said.
The rock star thanked the Home Front Command for allowing him to perform as planned.
“I told them that my audience is always anxious and thinking about death at the end of the day, so what difference does it make if we do it at home or Park Hayarkon,” he quipped. “If a missile comes I’ll sing ‘Sof Haolam’ (The End of the World).”
Geffen dedicated his next song, “Uri Ur” (Wake Up) to fans from the Gaza envelope, some of whom received free tickets to the concert.
And then he kept singing, like everything was normal. And unbelievably, we, the audience, kept singing and dancing like everything was normal.
As promised, Geffen brought some of Israel’s biggest rock stars, from Yaheli Sobol to Beri Sakharov and Rami Fortis, onstage. If anyone canceled for fear of being hit by rocket debris, it was not noticed.
It was a great night.
Plus, a movie recommendation: Rock in the Red Zone, about the great bands that came out of Sderot, on the Gaza border.
Here’s what you should know about days 2 and 3 of Operation Shield and Arrow:
Palestinian Islamic Jihad shot 803 rockets into Israel between Wednesday morning and 8 p.m. Thursday, and there were 191 Israeli airstrikes in that time. Iron Dome shot down 95% of the rockets.
At about midday on Wednesday (day 2), Palestinian Islamic Jihad started raining rockets down on Israeli civilian centers. Then Israel continued striking senior PIJ terrorists and weapons stores.
The David’s Sling defense system, meant to shoot down middle-range missiles, was used successfully for the first time. (It had previously been tried, unsuccessfully, against a missile from Hezbollah in Lebanon several years ago.)
By Wednesday evening, Egypt was playing its usual role, trying to mediate a ceasefire. (Side note: If anyone ever says Israel is “occupying Gaza” because it controls some of its borders, ask them why Egypt, which also controls Gaza borders, isn’t occupying Gaza, in that case.)
Israel was open to a ceasefire, having reached its objectives for the operation, a diplomatic source told me and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on TV later that evening. There was talk about a ceasefire going into effect at 9 p.m., but less than 2 hours before that, PIJ shot another huge barrage of rockets into Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant got on TV and said the campaign is continuing.
On Thursday morning, Israeli ministers were still saying in interviews that they’re open to a ceasefire and saying that if they don’t shoot, neither will we. Talks were continuing “in low gear,” a diplomatic source told me. What was happening behind the scenes was that PIJ kept making demands beyond just ceasing to fire, beyond what Netanyahu has called “quiet for quiet.” PIJ wanted Israel to promise not to assassinate its leadership anymore - even if Israel would have to stop as part of a ceasefire, to commit to that in the future means giving up a major deterrent - and for Israel to give PIJ the body of Khader Adnan, the terrorist who died of a hunger strike recently. Israel said it will only agree to an unconditional ceasefire.
Another big rocket barrage came on Thursday evening and this time the Iron Dome missed one that landed on a home in Rehovoth, killing one and leaving 10 injured.
At that point, the ceasefire talk was over. A top Israeli diplomatic source said that targeted assassinations of Palstinian Islamic Jihad terrorists - like the two that had taken place that day - would continue. "The equation has changed," the source declared, saying that Israel will make sure terrorists will pay a price. "Fire will be met with fire."
I’m not entirely sure what has changed in the equation. This latest Gaza mini-war is different in its slow start and that a ceasefire seemed so close and then dropped entirely. But in terms of the price terrorists pay - this is what the IDF often does, takes out the top of the organization. I’m withholding judgment for now and hoping we’ll learn about a game-changer soon.
The international reaction has been more or less what you’d expect. A couple of countries and US Members of Congress expressed full-throated support of Israel, but most of Israel’s allies support Israel’s right to defend itself and fight terror while doing some throat-clearing about civilians in Gaza and the need to de-escalate. Those less supportive do the opposite: The main message is that Israel killed some civilians and is using “disproportionate force,” with some reluctant asides rockets being bad and Israel having a right to defend itself. You can read some of those reactions at the end of the articles here and here. Of course the UN held a meeting. My understanding is there is no real diplomatic pressure on Israel to stop at this point.
I address the civilian casualties and “disproportionate force” issues in an interview with the BBC World Service. The host gave a totally one-sided account of events and I set her straight. It caught the attention of Stephen Daisley at The Spectator, who wrote this. His article includes a transcript of most of what I said. You can hear the interview here, at minute six.
BBC is bad enough, but if you want to see what real ignorance we’re dealing with, check out this question on CNN:
https://twitter.com/joshrfeldman/status/1656482346294706176?s=20