A week ago today, I stood among 60,000 others at the PGE Narodowy concert hall in Poland, ready to experience one of my favorite artists perform my favorite songs. I'm talking, of course, about Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour –now recognized as the largest tour in music history.
You can imagine my shock when I learned that a 19-year-old ISIS sympathizer had been planning a terror attack at the very event I attended.
Taylor Swift has since canceled three shows in Austria after authorities revealed that the ISIS sympathizer, along with his accomplices, had been plotting an attack in Vienna, explicitly targeting her upcoming concerts. Investigators report that the suspects radicalized themselves online – a troubling yet unsurprising detail.
As the details of this terror plot emerged, the horror only deepened. The 19-year-old suspect reportedly had friends employed as security guards for the concert, and they planned to drive a car into the 20,000 fans outside the Ernst Happel Stadium before launching an attack with machetes and knives. Outlets in Austria report that he was constructing a "well-advanced" bomb after chemical substances were found at his home. TATP.
Swifties everywhere are now grappling with the terror plot and the disappointment of the canceled shows. As an Israeli Swiftie, I can't help but feel that this was only a matter of time.
I purchased my Eras Tour tickets over a year ago, never imagining that just months later, Israel would find itself embroiled in a war on multiple fronts. For my sanity, I chose to attend the concert despite the turmoil back home. The trauma of living through October 7 and countless other terror attacks has left a deep scar on Israelis. My friends and I, though deeply concerned about events at home, forced ourselves to enjoy the concert, believing that giving in to fear would mean letting the terrorists win.
While we were in Europe, news broke of the assassinations of Fu'ad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh. At first, we were delighted that senior leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, people responsible for so much murder and suffering, were finally gone. But soon, we realized that Israelis around the world now had targets on their backs. I warned my friends, "The smartest move for the Islamic Republic regime right now would be to kidnap Israelis on foreign soil as an act of revenge." So, we tucked away our "Star of David" and "Bring Them Home" tags and used our foreign passports as identification.
I had even made a custom t-shirt for the concert, proudly displaying the phrase "In my Zionist Era" (a play on the Eras Tour theme), but I could not wear it. I have never been one to hide my identity or beliefs, but walking into a European concert hall with over 60,000 people while wearing something that clearly marked me as Jewish and Israeli felt like an unnecessary risk.
The concert itself was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It was powerful to witness 60,000 people singing along to the songs we've cherished for years. For three and a half hours, I escaped the grim reality of war in Israel and connected with 60,000 strangers through our shared love of Taylor's music.
But now, for us Israeli Swifties, this incident evokes painful memories of the Nova music festival, where over 360 people were slaughtered. I watched as the world celebrated the murder and kidnapping of Nova victims, and I endured the deafening silence from women's rights organizations over the brutal gang rape and mutilation of Israeli women and men. No one seemed to care that terrorists had invaded my country and committed the worst atrocities in modern history against my people.
We have always warned that what begins in Israel does not stay in Israel, and now, we've come dangerously close to another devastating terror attack at a concert. What if the terrorist had targeted my venue instead of Vienna? What if he had succeeded? Must we wait until Taylor and 20,000 of her fans are murdered before the world finally understands?
When radical Islamists in Europe and the West call to "globalize the intifada" and political leaders allow this radicalization to spread unchecked, they effectively give terrorists the green light to plot these attacks.
My heart goes out to the fans who were looking forward to the shows in Austria, knowing how much they had invested in terms of time, money, and energy. I can only hope that the world begins to wake up and realize that Islamic fundamentalism isn't confined to Israel's borders. In the end, Israel is fighting a war for the entire Western world.
