Yair Ziv - Rain

For about 15 hours we were just like any other country celebrating the new year. As New Years Day isn't a national holiday over here, we don't get the next day off. But this year it fell on a Thursday meaning that most workers could sleep in late on Friday and then enjoy the festive weekend with the weekly get-together at a coffee shop or a pub, where Israelis who've worked hard the whole week can relax with friends over a coffee or beer before heading home for Shabbat dinner and beginning the weekend. But that all changed this Friday afternoon when an Arab-Israeli shot towards a crowded pub which was holding a birthday party and killed the manager and a participant: Alon Bakel, 26 and Shimon Ruimi, 30. At home, I watched the surreal images of armed police patrolling the quiet streets by Dizzengof and heard chilling testimonies from witnesses. One was from a woman who mainly remembers the big smile on the shooter's face and another was from a bus driver who said that the shooter took a shot also at him but luckily he was saved by the window. The driver dropped to the floor, not before opening the doors for the passengers so they could flee. I wondered if he had ever been in a situation like this before and if he was a bus driver during the last two intifadas. Like many others, I was also reminded of the deadly 1994 suicide bombing on bus no.5 in Dizengoff, which brought terror attacks in Israel to a new level and further distanced the possibility of peace. Maybe that's what's so depressing about Friday's attack. We wanted to start the new year with a fresh page but were reminded that the violence isn't going to end anytime soon. Of course that doesn't mean that we'll give up the weekly tradition of afternoon beer with friends, especially if it's a sunny day. #IAmTelAviv

Rain
Washing down the streets
Washing down the blood
Washing down the dead in me
Rain
Washing down the war
Don't need it anymore
Don't need the big old fighter planes

Children in my eyes
I want to be alive
I want to give them what they want
But if the night should fall
The moon will be so hole
I'll fall asleep and won't wake up again

Rain
Washing all the streets
Washing all the blood
Washing all the dead in me
Rain
Washing all the war
Don't need it anymore
Don't need the big old fighter planes

Whose hand is this
That's reaching out to me
And calling me out from the sea
But what if I should fall
And dive in with the whales
And just forget that I am even there
Rain

Take me to the sun outside
Lift me from this warriors land
I don't wanna wait too long
I don't wanna wait at all

Yair Ziv's single "Rain" comes at a perfect timing. Ziv expresses himself beautifully with his honest lyrics and emotional sound.