As I was reading that excerpt (which hit a little close to home, as you
can imagine as I sit here in my leafy suburb writing about my trip to
Istanbul...)

that Kobi Oz Tippex song started going through my head "Yoshvim B'Beit
Cafe" -- basically sums up what you are writing about it!

To me, that song completely encapsulates that era.

-comment posted by Allison in response to my previous post

Usually spelled Tea Packs in English, but pronounced Tipex in Hebrew, the band headed by musican/author Koby Oz came out in 2001 with a song called "Sitting in a Cafe." As usual, Oz had his finger on the local Zeitgeist: with this song he managed to capture perfectly the way most of us were feeling at that time. We couldn't get over our shock at how badly things had gone wrong, and we felt powerless to effect change. We lived our lives, which often meant detaching, but we couldn't stop talking about "the situation." We sat in cafes and listened to music, but there was always this sense of grief hanging over our heads. The song became a huge hit.

I've translated the lyrics, below. You can listen to the song and read the lyrics in Hebrew by clicking here. The "you" in the song is a female "you," by the way.

Oh, and an aside to Hebrew speakers: I substituted English expressions for Hebrew whenever I thought a literal translation would've been awkward.

Sitting in a café

Sitting in a café
Feeling like we’re in a bubble
What should we have done?
Where did we go wrong?
What changed?
Sitting in a café
I order cheesecake
What should we have done?
Where did we go wrong?
This country’s finished

Driving in your Jeep
Listening to the stereo
Outside it’s black and white and mono
Driving in your Jeep
You don’t listen to the radio
For you
It’s a waste of time

Sitting in a café
Talking about the situation
What should we have done?
Where did we go wrong?
Why now?
Sitting in a café
Feeling like we’re in a different country
What should we have done?
Where did we go wrong?
There’s a deluge heading our way

Driving in your Jeep
Listening to the stereo
Outside it’s black and white and mono
Driving in your Jeep
You don’t listen to the radio
For you
It’s a waste of time

You’re tripping *
You’re calling me Romeo
Outside there’s a heat wave but for you it’s a cold and rainy day
Driving in your Jeep
You don’t listen to the radio
You don’t know how bad I feel right now

Sitting in a café…

* "tripping" in the slang sense of being on drugs or losing your mind