Elvis Costello says he won’t perform in Israel anymore.

Should we care?

What do we do when some of our favorite performers voice opinions about the Middle East that are not necessarily to our liking? (I must admit, this would’ve been a lot tougher on me if it’d been Springsteen.)

Maybe you haven’t heard but Elvis recently announced he was canceling his scheduled performances in Tel Aviv next month.

“One lives in hope that music is more than mere noise, filling up idle time, whether intending to elate or lament,” he wrote on his Web site. “Then there are occasions when merely having your name added to a concert schedule may be interpreted as a political act that resonates more than anything that might be sung and it may be assumed that one has no mind for the suffering of the innocent.”

Costello said he was concerned that playing Israel would result in some of his Israeli fans and others believing that he accepted “the policies of their government on settlement and … conditions that visit intimidation, humiliation or much worse on Palestinian civilians in the name of national security.”

Attempting to be evenhanded, he noted that Palestinians have committed “many despicable acts of violence perpetrated in the name of liberation.”

Costello concluded that “sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static,” and that his cancellation was “a matter of instinct and conscience.”

I’ve always liked Elvis Costello and his music. He’s absolutely brilliant. And you’ve got to admire him for taking a stand on something he believes in.

But one wonders, why did Elvis book the gigs in Tel Aviv in the first place if he opposes Israeli policies? After all, not much has changed recently over there. Did he just pick up a newspaper?

Also, I’m glad he’s living up to his conscience, but if he really recognizes that both sides have done horrible things, wouldn’t it have made more sense to play your concerts there and promote coexistence and peaceful relations, like Paul McCartney did a couple of years ago?

Does treating Israel like a pariah, like apartheid-era South Africa, really sound like an effective method?

Did Elvis need a cause? As any of his fans know, he can be impulsive. This is the same guy who years ago, at the height of his fame, got into a drunken brawl with Stephen Stills’ band members after he used the N-word in reference to James Brown and Ray Charles. (He later publicly apologized.)

I’m not ready to take my old Elvis Costello records out to my backyard and start a bonfire. I wouldn’t advise American Jews or anyone else to boycott his concerts or to start picketing the venues he plays at. He has a right to perform wherever he wants.

But before dipping his toe into the vortex and sordid mess that is Middle East politics, I just wish he would’ve thought things through a bit.

Unfortunately, brilliance in area of life does not convey brilliance in others. But given how anti-Semitic Europe seems to be, is it a surprise that a British singer would feel different than much of his countrymen? Maybe when he sees the pictures of Arabs with knives around an Israeli commando that were not doctored by Reuters to show no weapons he’ll change his mind. Then again, maybe not. Truth really doesn’t matter. Look at the Arabs. Tell a lie enough times and sooner or later they will believe it.

This Elvis caved. He would not have been the first to go to Israel and criticize its policies while putting on a good show. There’s a reason why he’s a musician and not a politician and he should remember that.