Personal reasons Macca in Israel plus open letters to Paul & interview Jerusalem post

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Personal reasons Macca in Israel plus open letters to Paul & interview Jeruselm post
note: this post will be updated thru-out the day

Ahhh a article from dear ol Geoff Baker, via the Mail online-I miss Geoff., He does know the McCartney's very well...so I will post his take on the Macca gig in Israel, very well mannered for Geoff, as I read..
Is this really about Linda McCartney a tribute to her heritage? Yes, I did read what Geoff wrote.,I'd like to think in more romantic terms, OK?

Why Sir Paul McCartney is willing to risk it all in Israel
By Geoff Baker
Last updated at 10:06 PM on 20th September 2008

Paul McCartney performs in Israel on Thursday for the first time. The concert in Tel Aviv will be a security nightmare and rival groups are playing tug-of-war with Paul's personal politics.
Because he is seen almost universally as 'one of the good guys', everyone wants to recruit him to their side.
Israel, which famously banned the 'decadent' Beatles in 1965, is billing the concert as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations.


Paul is no Zionist and nor has he ever spoken up for the PLO, but he is a pacifist and hopes the two sides take a hint from the title of the gig - The Friendship First Concert.

There is also a private reason for Macca's visit - it represents a nod of thanks to those of Jewish birth who were instrumental in helping to forge the Beatles phenomenon. As a Beatle, Paul's manager, lawyer, song publisher and promoter were all Jewish. read the rest of Geoff's story here

One blogger's open letter to Macca

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. more of Tony's letter here at his blog

more on letters later.
Must read article from the Jurusalem Post on Paul McCartney a brief snippet

Speaking words of wisdom
By David horovitz

A full half century after The Beatles began to take shape, Paul McCartney still sounds awed, modest and appreciative when discussing the lasting resonance of their music. Ahead of his Tel Aviv concert on Thursday, McCartney talks here to The Jerusalem Post about his beliefs, about how he copes with near-universal fame, about the puzzling, even "magical" inspiration for some of his songs, and about his abiding, insistently optimistic outlook on life.

"I don't know if he was being unworldly or self-calming in suggesting similarities between the extremists' objections now and the marginal hostility to a recent appearance he made in Quebec or to shows played at Tokyo's Budokan martial arts arena.

But he wanted to stress that his message is one of humanitarianism and friendship. Indeed, this week's show, the latest in a series of one-offs that has seen him play to almost 700,000 people in Liverpool, Kiev and Quebec, is being promoted as McCartney's "Friendship First" concert"

Is that Paul?
Yeah!
How're you doing man?
I'm great. It's lovely to speak to you.

I have to tell you my sister and my mum were in the enthralled masses at Hammersmith Odeon in 1965…
I remember them well! (Laughs)

All they could hear was screaming, they said.
I know - that's all we could hear too... I must say, even though we couldn't hear anything, it was pretty exciting times.
You're the soundtrack to my children's lives as well. My daughter, who's 11, has just started learning bass and she's learning "Let It Be." That's the first thing they've got her working on.

Wow. It is fabulous, eh. We never, ever, thought that it would last this long. But, you know, it's a great tribute that it has lasted and that kids play it these days. I'm very proud of that fact.

It's third time lucky for Israel, right, after our brilliant government banned you and then the Wings dates fell through [in the 1970s]? Is this somewhere you've particularly wanted to play?

Yeah, you know, I'm always interested in visiting places I've never been to before, just as a tourist. It's always interesting to go to a new region. The offer of a gig came up. And it was somewhere that I'd been interested in. I'd like to go there and see what's what. I hear from a lot of people that Tel Aviv is a great place. more of Paul's interview here Juresalem Post

more later hb