The war opens with an egyptian missile attackon radar station at charmache, which is at the very southern tip of sinai. And a orlea had a pretty tragic story from the war. An orles there, and that's when she meets coen. You know, coen shows up a large airfield next to the radar station all too long after that. So he's meeting these people who might know his songs andd some of whom don't worship him, like oarly. But he's meeting them in minutes, days, maybe a week, after after really the worst moments of ther their lives.
In October 1973, an unhappy Leonard Cohen was listening to the radio on his Greek island home when he heard that Israel was at war. He headed to Tel Aviv, exchanging a personal and creative crisis for a national one. Absent a plan and even a guitar, Cohen wound up serenading Israeli soldiers at the front. Journalist Matti Friedman talks about his book Who by Fire with EconTalk host Russ Roberts and explains how a songwriter and a nation were transformed in the crucible of war.