Last week, when the long-awaited Israel-Hamas hostage-ceasefire deal was announced, musician and entrepreneur Yoni Bloch released one of the most remarkable videos I’ve ever seen. Indeed, every time I watch it (and I’ve gone back multiple times), I can’t stop crying. I tear up even just talking to someone about Bloch’s creation.
Bloch has penned a vision of what the Middle East could look like if peace – true peace – were to prevail. And he’s used some remarkable artificial intelligence tools to create those images.
I first met Bloch 13 years ago when I wrote an article about his transition from indie pop darling to high-tech big wig. After several years in the mid-2000s recording a string of quirky singles, Bloch pivoted to the tech world, where he founded Interlude.fm, a start-up that developed interactive software allowing viewers to manipulate what happens next in the video.
Should the girl go home with the boy or stay at the party? Should Andy dance with the waiters or hang with the cleaning staff in the hotel lobby? What are the ramifications of choosing the black vs the red t-shirt?
Interlude rebranded as Eko in 2016 and counts as clients brand names such as Walmart and Sam’s Club. The company has offices in Tel Aviv and New York. Investors include Intel Capital, Warner Music Group, Sony, and Sequoia.
Bloch invited my wife, Jody, and I to what turned out to be one of his last performances in Israel at the time before moving to the US to set up Interlude. It was a charming concert by this musician who was clearly already channeling his inner nerd.
Indeed, Yoni Bloch didn’t set out to become a rock star. A self-professed geek from the northern Negev town of Beersheba, Bloch loved playing both video games and music, he told me during our 2012 interview. After posting a few of his songs on New Stage, a sort of Israeli MySpace, Israeli music lovers discovered him, and he became a staple of the local alternative music scene. Israeli music label NMC subsequently picked up Bloch.
For his latest single, the catchy “Sof Tov” (“A Happy Ending”), which starts with Bloch nearly whispering the lyrics before breaking out into Aviv Geffen-like wall-of-sound guitar-powered crescendos, Bloch and his writing partner Barak Feldman didn’t employ Eko’s interactive smarts. Instead, the video leans into AI to create three minutes of pure, joyous fantasy.
Some of what’s shown on the video is real, but much of it is artificially generated, envisioning the emotional response in Israel – and in Bloch’s rendering, worldwide – to the release of the hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and its affiliates.
There are parades of people cheering as blue and white balloons fill the streets and Israeli jet fighters streak across the air. “Fake news” from the BBC, CNN and other international media outlets announces the release of every single hostage. “Leaders unite to end century-old conflict,” reads one chyron feed; “Historic peace: Israel and neighbors unite” reads another. Posters are torn down to reveal… living faces. Yellow ribbons are cut and tossed away.
Dozens of green Egged buses are shown shuttling toward the kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope, returning its Israeli residents to a new, peaceful, and safe reality.
But that’s just the hors d’oeuvres. The main course is what the Middle East could look like if everyone lay down their arms and embraced peace.
A “Middle East Union” is formed – much like the European Union – allowing visa-free travel for everyone in the region.
That leads to a red and white Israeli train shown crossing a bridge and passing Egypt’s pyramids at Giza, followed by Israeli backpackers heading out on the new “Levant Trail” that expands the Israel Trail’s current 1,000 kilometers into Egypt in the south and Syria in the north.
In Tel Aviv, billboards advertise $299 flights to Tehran.
There’s a scene where Israelis tuck their second “emergency” passports (popular Portugal is shown) into a drawer, as the need to flee is gone.
In another bit, an Israeli woman receives her draft notice – it reads “canceled.” That’s followed by an image of an IDF recruitment office boarded up and a cache of rifles locked down.
The land adjacent to (the former) IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv has been turned into a recreation center called “Rabin Park.”
Israel is back in the World Cup, qualifying for the first time since 1970. An Israeli and Iranian judo player embrace (rather than the Iranian side refusing to even compete to avoid such “bad optics,” as has happened in real life in the past). Israelis celebrate in Times Square. A massive party takes place on the Temple Mount.
And then the kicker – for Bloch certainly and for pop music fans worldwide – Taylor Swift launches a worldwide “Peace tour” with a stop in Israel. The opening act: Yoni Bloch. The AI depicts the two of them embracing on stage.
I’m crying again just writing this.
“Sof Tov” is not the first song to envision a peaceful future in the region. 1969’s “Shir LaShalom” and Naomi Shemer’s “Machar,” composed earlier in the 1960s to depict a future with no more social strife, are notable examples.
Is Bloch naïve? A dreamer out of touch with reality? Does the future he depicts stand a chance, or will it be relegated to the trash can of failed science fiction and fantasy?
“It’s a little exaggerated and a little real,” Bloch told Channel 12. “But the purpose of the song is not to describe reality but to remind people that they shouldn’t stop dreaming.”
It doesn’t matter. For a moment, the hostage deal gives us the faintest glimmer of hope, and so does Yoni Bloch.
But be sure to bring some tissues. You’re going to need them.
To see the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=erLAgHIP6UM&ab_channel=YoniBloch
I first wrote about Yoni Block’s remarkable new video for The Jerusalem Post.
