Our People Make All The Difference!
yarkon Park; he said, "Good
evening, Tel Aviv, I'm sorry for
my part in what happened, and
I thank you for your tolerance
and for everything." The fans
cheered. El
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that celebrity decided he didn't
care for the local style?
"This is the most provincial
people in the world, a commu-
nity of Poles with no sense of
proportion...When are they go-
ing to learn that a concert by a
singer is, in the end, nothing
more than a concert by a
singer?" asked Gal Ohovsky, a
columnist for Hadashot, Is-
rael's most iconoclastic daily
newspaper.
So touchy about everything,
these Israelis. Mimicking the
common Israeli attitude towards
Elton John, Mr. Ohovsky wrote,
"how can it be that somebody
didn't fall in love with us at first
sight? And what will the world
say? Such a disgrace."
Ron Myberg, another colum-
nist at Hadashot, went a step
further on the Israeli fascina-
tion/hostility towards the rich
and famous from the big world
outside:
"Only after every second-rate
bureaucrat who got out of bed
on the wrong side gives our dear
VIP three rounds of tsk-tsk and
insults him and his entourage
— only then are we satisfied."
There was a time, not too long
ago, when VIPs like Elton
John wouldn't come to Israel
— people didn't have the mon-
ey to buy the tickets, promoters
didn't have the money to pay the
star's fee, and Israel wasn't in-
terested in Western pop culture,
anyway. When it was proposed
in 1965 that Israel invite the
Beatles over, a government com-
mittee shot down the idea, say-
ing the Beatles would corrupt
the purity and socialist Zionist
resolve of the country's youth.
Today the country has mon-
ey and socialist Zionism is de-
cidedly out of favor. Hundreds
of thousands of Israelis travel
abroad each year, car phones
and cable TV are common,
young people wear ripped Levis
and Reeboks, and Western pop
culture is now Israeli pop cul-
ture. Guns "IT Roses were just
here, Eric Clapton and Dire
Straits were here, and Michael
Jackson is coming in September.
Israelis are infatuated with
the stars of that rich, glamorous
culture, and they are deter-
mined to be part of it. When a
star says he wants no part of Is-
rael, Israelis may say they don't
care, they don't need Elton John,
but it's just bravado.
They do care, desperately,
and they will send helicopters
and limousines and appeals
from as many ministers as it
takes to bring him back.
In the end, Elton John made
his peace with Israel. Before a
full house of 40,000 fans at Ha-
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