Thursday night was a historic one for Israeli fans of the Beatles – the most successful and lauded pop-rock band ever. Thirty-eight years after the band's breakup and 28 years after the death of his longtime partner in songwriting, John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney performed in Israel for the first time ever. The concert took place before an audience estimated at 50,000, which filled an enclosure created for the event at Tel Aviv's Ganei Yehoshua Park, and overflowed beyond it.

McCartney decided to hold the concert in Israel despite terror threats made by Muslims.

McCartney sings "Ahlan Jude"

Gil Ronen
Fireworks thrill crowd in "Live and Let Die"

Gil Ronen
"Why she had to go I don't know..."

Gil Ronen

Didn't miss a note

When the lights first went on, and McCartney saw the mostly very young crowd, it seemed as though he breathed a sigh of relief. "I have a feeling we are going to have a very good time tonight," he said. At 67, McCartney surprised many people with an energetic and highly professional performance. He didn't miss a note, jumped and strutted about impressively and seemed, indeed, to be having a very good time.

The set of songs was made up mostly of Beatles classics, together with many of McCartney's best known tunes from post-Beatles days, and a few less known ones.

Unlike previous high-profile performers like Pink Floyd's Roger Waters, who performed in Israel l

He said "shalom Tel Aviv and Shana Tova (Happy New Year)" and added "ze mipa'am" (this one is from a long time ago")

ast year, McCartney avoided political statements of any kind during the performance. He used a little bit of Hebrew to entertain the audience, most of which he seemed to be reading from notes that had been planted in his vicinity ahead of time. He said "Shalom Tel Aviv and Shana Tova (Happy New Year)" and added "ze mipa'am" (this one is from a long time ago") before beginning to sing "All My Loving."

'Ahlan Jude'

Before singing "My Love," McCartney said "ze le-Linda" ("this one is for Linda") and similarly introduced "Something" and "A Day in the Life" with "ze le-George" and "ze le-John," respectively. Then, when he sat down at the piano, he told the audience that the next song was "Ahlan Jude," using the Arabic word for "Hey" which is also in common use among Israelis.

After two planned encores with "Lady Madonna", "Get Back," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Yesterday" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," McCartney promised: "nitra'eh" – "we'll see each other again," and trotted off the stage.



'Thank you for the music'

The audience gave the musical genius a lot of love and respect, holding up signs that said "thank you for the music" and "there will never be a more perfect moment than this one." The concert ended near midnight, after more than three hours that seemed to pass very quickly. On the way out, one girl aged about 12 asked her father, who seemed to be in his 50s, "so Dad, did you have a good time? Did you fulfill your dream?" The father said yes, he had, and the girl said that she too had had fun and that she knew most of the songs.

During his brief stay in Israel, McCartney visited Tel Aviv's boardwalk and went to Bethlehem. Unlike other visiting dignitaries, he did not pay a visit to Ramallah.