THE WAR’S IMPACT

Back to Israel: Conductor Zubin Mehta, who traveled to Israel when the Persian Gulf War began, is planning to return for a concert next month. “Hopefully by then we can do the concerts. At the moment, no public assembly is allowed. Everybody is hungry for music,” he said Tuesday at a New York Philharmonic luncheon honoring him. Isaac Stern, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Hugh Downs, Walter Cronkite and Itzhak Perlman attended the lunch. Mehta, “Music Director for Life” of the Israel Philharmonic, returned from Israel Monday night and led the New York Philharmonic Tuesday morning.