Another BBC Appearance

Due to a bereavement, I have been called in to substitute and be present at this event:

Lecture 5: The Power of Music

Venue: Jerusalem International YMCA, Jerusalem
Broadcast: Friday 5 May, 9am
Repeated: Saturday 6 May, 10.15pm

to be broadcast on BBC's Radio 4.

It is being recorded tonight and I am to ask one of the first questions. I doubt, though, if I'll get a chance to correct what I presume will be his misrepresentation of facts.

The question I've formulated, how it will come out, I don't know, is this:

Mr. Barenboim, you have been described as "A courageous idealist who believes that symphonic music can heal human conflict" and during a visit to Ramallah in August 2003, you said of the Arab-Israel conflict that "there is no military solution, either morally or strategically."

You assert that there is "a very major difference between power and strength…that if you attack a chord with more power than you are going to sustain it, it has no strength."

But is it not possible that you are simply fiddling away, to misappropriate a metaphor, extending succor to a terrorist entity now supported by a popular vote, while Israel's security is endangered by the sounds of Kassam rockets, this despite the withdrawal from Gaza, as well as the loud bangs of suicide bombers who continue to kill its citizens and tourists?