In the beginning Israel was filled with Zionist ideas. Artists were trying to create new Israeli culture without even considering people’s different origins. Yiddish, Mizrahi, Sephardic and Arabic traditions were forgotten topics. Thanks to the never-ending flow of 'olim' from Russia, Russian culture was an exception and remained popular. That’s why so much music sounded like old Russian songs, even though it was performed in Hebrew. The idea to create the new identity out of nothing was born to fail.

Our culture is a real bubble: we have no connection to the countries around us, we can not cross the border and collaborate with our neighbors in any way. Everything that is happening in the world we adopt with delay and it’s a one-sided relationship — we only absorb, we don’t inspire. But thanks to the internet and cheap flights it's changing now. In the past 10 years there has been an interesting wave in Israeli music. People who grew up on international culture, mainly music and literature in English, started to use the language themselves. These new artists are willing to reach out to the international audience and some, like Tamar Eisenman, Asaf Avidan and theAngelcy, manage to break through.

Lately a new and really interesting phenomena has appeared. The young culture is going back to the roots, diminished by Zionism. But now the Arabic melodies and lyrics in Yiddish integrate beat and modern sound. A band A-WA is a good example. They are three Yemeni sisters who create very hip music with high-end production. They use the language that nobody understands and they are still quite successful in the world.

In the 90s people talked about peace agreement and air was filled with political optimism. Arab-Jewish musical collaborations were also thriving. But then Rabin got shot and the negotiations went nowhere. Palestinians were treated worse every day and multiple coexistence programs were put on hold. All this holding hands and talking about peace and love seemed hypocritical to the Palestinians. The boycott of Israeli goods and culture spread around the Eastern world. Since then young Palestinians are trying to create their independent culture and some of them manage to make connections in Arab world. A good example is DAM, a hip-hop band from Lod. They sing in Arabic and English and perform around the world.