Jon Bon Jovi dedicated a new song “We Don’t Run” (embedded below) to an enthusiastic crowd in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.

The singer, performing for the first time in Israel, told the crowd, “I’ve waited a long time for this, baby!”

The Times of Israel reported:

A few songs into the show, he underlined his empathy with Israel by introducing a new song called “We Don’t Run,” released earlier this summer, with the comment: “This should be the fight song for Tel Aviv.”

And later in the performance, the New Jersey-born rocker name-checked his keyboard player, the Jewish musician David Bryan (Rashbaum), by saying that “your father would be proud of you” for being in Israel pounding the piano.

“I have been everywhere and Israel was a place that I’ve always wanted to visit, but it never worked out,” Bon Jovi told reporters before the concert. “This time I insisted that Israel must be on our list and it happened!”

At the end of the concert, the singer told the crowd, “I’ll come here any time you want.”

Bon Jovi and his band had been criticized by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, who urged the singer to boycott Israel. Bon Jovi told Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot that he had heard of Waters’ appeal, “but it doesn’t interest me. I told my managers to give one simple answer: That I’m coming to Israel and I’m excited to come.”

[Photo: justlikeaStormwind / YouTube ]