Let My People Go: What a Rock Concert Revealed About Passion, Politics, and War

When I moved to Israel in 1982, “T-Slam” was the biggest band around. They were huge – Israel’s first “Rockers.” Their concerts were so boisterous that they were banned from playing at venues because their fans would climb on the seats and cause damage. T-Slam was built around their soloist, Danny Bassan, and their lead guitarist, Yizhar Ashdot. Their music is heavy on the guitar, similar to 80s groups like Foreigner and The Cars. Their music is far better than their lyrics, which, at times, seem like an afterthought. Here are the lyrics to one of their biggest hits – a truly great song – “Boker Shel Kef” (“A Morning of Fun”):

“What a fun morning, What a fun morning I had 

What a fun morning Oh, what a fun morning 

What fun, he said, What a fun morning I had 

What a fun morning.”

Admittedly prosaic, but the guitar riffs are amazing.

While T-Slam officially broke up in 1983, the band has dissolved and rejoined many times. One of my favorite songs, “Yesh Lach Oti” – “You Still Have Me,” was written when they got together again in 1990, right before the First Gulf War, in which 39 SCUD-B missiles were fired by Iraq into the Israeli heartland. The song became emblematic of the war and was played in many a sealed room. (There was a real fear that the Iraqis would arm their missiles with chemical and biological warheads, such that an ordinary bomb shelter would have been ineffective).

Last Thursday night, T-Slam performed at the Australia Park in Misgav, about ten minutes down the road from our home in Moreshet. This was not a concert that we were going to miss. We arrived at the venue early, not only to get a good seat, but to meet the band. My son-in-law’s father is a first cousin of Yair Nitzani, T-Slam’s keyboardist – in Israel, everybody knows everybody. We went backstage, met the guys, ate some watermelon, and talked about growing oranges. I gave them all SPIKE baseball hats. SPIKE is a short-range tactical missile that, if you can believe what you read in the papers, was used with great success in the recent war with Iran. And then my wife and I went back and took our seats. 

The concert was well-attended with around 500 people in attendance. The average age was about 60, which means that about 45 years ago, these people would have been just the right age to be standing on their chairs. The concert was great. The place was rocking. Yizhar Ashdot is still the consummate guitarist, but Danny Bassan’s voice is not what it used to be. When Danny needed to hit the high notes that he no could longer reach, he let the audience do it for him.

And this is where things became problematic. It bears noting that Yizhar Ashdot has very well-known, very left-wing, political views. He openly criticizes Israeli government policies he sees as promoting “extremism” or “undermining democracy.” He is especially concerned with the “Messianic Right” and its advocation of continued control and settlement of Judea and Samaria. His 2012 song “A Matter of Habit” was banned by the IDF Radio due to its explicit critique of military culture. The song features lyrics that depict the desensitization of soldiers to violence, starting with routine patrols and escalating to acts of killing, set against the backdrop of Judea and Samaria. 

Before the band began playing one of their best tunes, “Lirot Ota haYom” (“To See Her today”), Danny Bassan addressed the crowd. He spoke about the 50 hostages who still remain in Gaza and the hell they have been going through every single day since October 7. Danny said that we need to get all of the hostages out of Gaza – every last one – and we need to do it now. He repeated the word “now” no less than three times. Then he told us that there was only one person in the world who had the means to get them out. Without naming names, it was clear he was referring to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it was clear that he was blaming the Prime Minister for not getting the hostages out sooner. He told us that he would be changing the words in the song, such that instead of singing “Lirot Ota haYom” (“To See Her today”), he and the audience along with him should sing “Lirot Otam haYom” (“To See Them today"). 

The release of the hostages is possibly the most divisive issue in Israel today. Of course every Israeli wants all of the hostages brought back, but not at all costs. Somewhere since October 7, political lines began to form in which the releasing the hostages became associated with removing Prime Minister Netanyahu from power. The people leading the “Bring them back now” were the same ones who had led the anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv during the days leading up to October 7. Indeed, the “Now” in “Bring Them Back Now” was eerily reminiscent of “Peace Now,” a vocal far-left organization that backs the removal of every single Israeli from Judea and Samaria. But what bothered me the most about Danny Bassan’s soliloquy was his assertion that only Netanyahu could save the hostages. This is blather. Netanyahu is not holding the hostages, Hamas is. We should not be saying “Bring them back,” as if it is our decision to make, but rather, “Let my people go.” Hamas refuses to release the hostages because they serve as human shields. If Hamas were to release all the hostages, they would lose their remaining leverage in future negotiations. It is precisely because Hamas will not release the hostages on their own volition that the IDF must continue to apply kinetic pressure until Hamas has no other choice but to let our people go.

There at the concert, I discovered that things in me that had changed in the last 40 years. Things are not nearly as clear as I once thought they were, and that is a clear sign that I have become older and wiser. Something I have gained over the past 40 years is nuance. Things are no longer black and white, just an array of varying shades of gray. Our choice is rarely between “right” and “wrong,” but between “better” and “worse.” Over the past 40 years, I also learned that some things take time. Nine women cannot produce a baby in one month. Peace is not going to come “now” no matter how badly we want it. I have no illusions that my grandchildren will be sending their sons to the army. And even when we finally sign peace treaties with all of our neighbors, even if every Moslem country on earth joins the Abraham Accords, no one can foresee how long it will last. And as much as it pains me to say, the hostages are also not coming back “now.” The goals of this war are to ensure that October 7 never happens again and to free all of the hostages. But if one goal must come at the expense of the other, our future as a country trumps everything else.

But there is one thing that has not changed over the past 40 years: my passion. I came to Israel because I was passionate about the State of Israel. I knew it was critical to the future of the Jewish People and in our connection to our past. Because of my passion, I made irreversible decisions regarding my career, my home, and my family. Israel is not a place for the apathetic. If we want to continue building the State of Israel, then we need to continually stoke the flames of our fervor. No one knows this better than Yizhar Ashdot. In an interview from 2024, Ashdot was bemoaning the lack of success of Israel’s left and how the vast majority of Israelis no longer believed in the potential for a two-state solution. Ashdot said, “The Israeli Messianic Right is very successful because there really is a passion there that is nowhere else in Israeli society. There is a passion there that was here at the beginning of the 20^th century [when the State of Israel was forged]. There is that passion and that power there, that is why they are so successful. We [in the left] don't have that. The passion to succeed and win.”

Messianic? Not sure what that even means. Passion? Guilty as charged. Succeed and win? I think we’re in a pretty good place. Judge for yourself.

Good things,

Ari Sacher