If you will it

AI music clip imagines all hostages released, a new MidEast

Yoni Bloch and Barak Feldman put all their hopes and dreams into ‘Happy Ending,’ envisioning the captives home, parties on the Temple Mount, and no more need for IDF recruits

Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

An AI generated clip from Yoni Bloch's new song, 'Happy Ending,' released in January 2025, imagining the return of all the remaining hostages in Gaza and a new Middle East (Screengrab: YouTube)
An AI generated clip from Yoni Bloch's new song, 'Happy Ending,' released in January 2025, imagining the return of all the remaining hostages in Gaza and a new Middle East (Screengrab: YouTube)

As Israelis anxiously await news of a possible hostage deal with Hamas, musician Yoni Bloch released his latest song, “Happy Ending,” with an AI-generated clip that imagines all of the remaining hostages coming home, and a new Middle East.

The song talks about the possibility of a happy ending to the last 15 months, envisioning the country’s streets filled with people holding Israeli flags and balloons in celebration.

The AI clip includes familiar TV reporters at the scene of the hostages’ release, with fighter jets streaking blue-and-white across the sky and Channel 12 anchor Danny Kushmaro weeping at their return home.

The video shows Egged buses bringing all the evacuated residents of the south back to their homes, and then the song takes the end of the war a step further, announcing a historic peace agreement and peace in the Middle East.

Bloch sings in the song he wrote with his musical partner, Barak Feldman”

Let’s start after there is already peace
And only a few details remain to be closed
We will invite all the residents of the north
for a wicked party in Re’im

Billboards along Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway announce cheap flights to Beirut, and there’s a view of a massive party on the Temple Mount, while blue-and-white balloons are released in New York City’s Times Square.

Eighteen-year-olds are told they no longer have to serve in the IDF, and the recruiting offices are closed, with all the caches of guns locked up.

Israelis are shown on a train to Egypt, the pyramids visible in the background, with the rail line reaching into Syria as well.

Israel qualifies for the World Cup, a competition it hasn’t participated in since 1970, while two judokas, one Israeli and one Iranian, embrace on the mat after a match.

Someone tosses their Portuguese passport into a drawer, no longer having to consider leaving Israel. The final scene shows Taylor Swift performing in Israel with a surprising warmup guest, none other than Bloch himself.

“It’s a little exaggerated and a little real,” Bloch said in a brief interview with Channel 12.

He said he didn’t know how people would react to it at first.

“I think if the clip was optimistic and realistic, then it wouldn’t work,” said Bloch. “We all know that the reality is much more complex. But the purpose of the song is not to describe reality, but to remind people that they shouldn’t stop dreaming.”

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