Sunday, The Times of Israel excerpted an interview Lady Gaga gave last week to The Independent.

“Oh it was fantastic!” said Lady Gaga in an interview published Friday by The Independent, talking about her September 13 performance in Tel Aviv. “Tel Aviv was magnificent. The world view of Israel is just not reality. It’s in a beautiful place, the people are in good spirits.”

“I had a very emotional show with those fans. It was wonderful,” she said.

The popular entertainer also revealed in the interview that her duet with Tony Bennett in Tel Aviv was a surprise.

“And I was very overwhelmed when Tony surprised me there. I knew he was coming in [to Tel Aviv] for a show, but he came a day early and he said: ‘Hey, you wanna sing “Anything But Love” at the ArtRave?’ And I thought: ‘Gosh, how magnificent! To bridge the jazz and the pop world at the same time.’ And at that show there were 25,000 people singing every word.”

Lady Gaga and Bennett released an album earlier this month.

The unalloyed enthusiasm for Israel that Lady Gaga expressed at her concert prompted David Horovitz, editor of The Times of Israel, to comment that with her words of support she demonstrated “more clear-headed morality than any international statesman managed to muster this terrible summer.” Last week’s interview shows that the enthusiasm wasn’t an act.

[Photo: מעייו ממן / YouTube ]