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The song in an ad for an Israeli sandwich shop has become a nationwide party anthem
JAFFA, Israel (JTA) — The Hebrew lyrics for an Israeli sandwich shop ad don’t sound quite like a typical Israeli night club anthem.
“Kebab, merguez sausage, shakshuka/Vegetables and onion are always interesting…Now that you’ve eaten a baguette with soul/you will definitely be back,” the song goes.
But “Omelette Bread in Netanya,” the song in an ad for a shop of the same name in the coastal city, has gone viral in Israel, racking up millions of views on TikTok and spawning hundreds of spin-offs, parodies, and restaurant review videos. It is being played at trance parties, weddings and in the heads of millions of unassuming social media scrollers.
“Omelette bread” is a direct translation, but it refers to an omelette sandwich, which is popular in Israel.
The kiosk’s owner, Vicky Ezra — the man who, if the song is to be believed, “puts his love into the baguette” — wasn’t always a sandwich connoisseur. Before falling sick with COVID-19 during Israel’s first wave in March 2020, Ezra was a successful real estate businessman. Ezra was put into an induced coma and only regained consciousness two and a half weeks later. He told Israel’s Channel 12 that he was sure he was going to die.
During his lengthy rehabilitation, he was haunted by nightmares and decided he couldn’t return to his former business. He bought the modest-sized shop as an inheritance for his son, Moriel.
The song was made not so much as a marketing ploy, but more to make Ezra happy, the Channel 12 report said, citing his family’s musical background.
In a clip shared on Omelette Bread’s TikTok account — which was opened as a result of the song and has since garnered more than half a million likes — the singer, Avi Levy, says the tune was written in 10 minutes. The clip ends with Levy quipping that he hopes the song’s popularity will draw enough fans to fill Caesarea Amphitheatre, one of Israel’s largest performance venues.
What Levy doesn’t mention is that “Omelette Bread in Netanya” is actually a cover of a Greek song, “To Diamerisma,” by folk legend Vasilis Karras.
Levy is not alone in adapting songs from Greek artists.That process has been a phenomenon in Israeli music for at least the past 60 years, according to Yasmin Ishbi, the chief music editor for Galgalatz, Israel’s most-listened to music station.
“Many of the hits from the 1970s, 80s and 90s were actually Greek songs that went through giyur,” Ishbi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, referring to the Jewish conversion process. She cited music icons Arik Einstein and Yehuda Poliker among hundreds of Israeli musicians who remade Greek songs.
The Greek Jewish community is relatively small, as so many Greek Jews had been wiped out during the Holocaust — so the impact of Greek music on Israeli music, especially for Mizrahi Israelis, Ishbi said, is vastly outsized. Greek songs “filled the void” of culture in the country’s early days, before Israel cultivated its own music style.
“It was lighter than the music coming out of Arab countries, and because it had one foot in the West and one foot in East, it acted like a bridge connecting Ashkenazi and Mizrahi immigrants,” Ishbi said. “Many [Mizrahi Jews] were embarrassed by the music they traditionally listened to, like Umm Kulthum and Farid al-Atrash.”
It makes “total sense” that “Omelet Bread in Netanya” was inspired by a Greek song, Ishbi said, because the “melody is just so good.”
“The charming thing about it is that it was done with zero intention to become viral,” she said. “So when you watch it, you laugh at them and their absurd lyrics, but you’re also laughing with them.”
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The post The song in an ad for an Israeli sandwich shop has become a nationwide party anthem appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.