4 countries to boycott Eurovision due to Israel’s continued inclusion

This is nonsensical. All of the phenomenona you mention there are historic and widespread across Europe. Your approach on these matters is quite xenophobic, I'm afraid.

And what has happened to Ukraine is not 'inconveniencing' it is it? What an absolutely appalli g thing to say. Thousands killed, thousands of children kidnapped and 'reeducated', thousands displaced and trafficked, refugees all over Europe.

Omg. I'm explaining why, strategically, it was straightforeard and necessary to have a cultural boycott of Russia. It beggars belief that this is hard to understand.

So we should only care when European citizens are victims or inconvenienced?

Kicking Russia out was very simple. Russia aggressively invaded a peaceful sovreign nation in Europe. Refugees then flooded other European nations putting enormous strain on them. Russia was also threatening enervy supplies across Europe. And waging its own war on our democracies through cyber activity. How many reasons do you need. Russia is a threat IN Europe.

I would say there was probably something else behind it, yes, given that other countries have had problematic regimes and undertaken problematic policies including being fascist (Spain), killing children and falsifying birth and death records (Spain, Ireland), secession, war (Slovenia) and still been able to take part in this singing show.

As I see it there are likely several reasons, some interconnected. At historic base level, there is a mistrust about Slavic peoples within Europe. Then there's the not-quite-cold war which is relevant for a show administrated by western European nations. Added to that, I really do think the immediate driver for the knee jerk reaction is this contemporary mania for dividing the world into good and evil, where everyone needs to pick a side.

You see I don't believe this for a minute and I dont see how you can. Sanctions could and should be much heavier against Russia, Trump is being very weak with Russia. There are no demos anywhere that I know of. No popular momentum, even if the serious news covers it.

No it's not. I will die on that hill. Some things stay with you and those 2 in particular have stayed with me because of just how grotesque they were.

Like I said do that about Ukrainian children, then call everyone who disagrees with you a dumb racist and see how many replies you get.

Your entire framing is disingenous and I suspect the details are untrue though I am obviously not going to waste my time going through the entire board for 2 years. Either way its not an accurate reflection of the discussions as a whole.

It's not untrue. Which part are you denying is true?

That thread on Adam changed how I saw this conflict. I had no idea how some people viewed Palestinian children until that thread where people watched a video of an 8 year old boy being shot in the head and killed as he ran away from the IDF and then defended it. They watched a child being executed and instead of being appalled they fell over themselves to excuse it. It is something that will stay with me forever.

This is untrue.

Both do things that are indefensible but people on here only defend one of them 24/7. Of course people have been defending the killing of children. You are here all the time you've seen it, we've all seen it. One that springs to mind is all of the excuses for the little premature babies Israel killed and left to decompose. They blamed the poor parents. They blamed the Drs who spent days begging the international community to help them. Then there was little 8 year old Adam. There was a thread full of accusations that he would be a future terrorist anyway, 10s of excuses about why little Adam deserved to be shot in the head as he ran away from the IDF. I remember it clearly.

Do that about little children in Ukraine and see how you get on.

I stand with Israel against terrorism . Has anyone found those 20,000 dead children yet? As apparently no mass grave has been found in Palestine. I saw a queue for the iPhone 17 in Gaza. Is this “starvation?”

Who has ever started a thread defending children being killed? Why are you comparing Israel with the Taliban? Both are grotesque. There is no possible chance of sensible discussion.

I am concerned about those things whetever they happen. They are not specifically Israeli issues. I've said many times the government should be called to account for any illegal behaviour. We often know about illegal things, if and when they happen because Israel has a functioning democracy, rule of law and functioning free media. It crosses lines sometimes. Nowhere else in the ME has those functioning levers of a free society. How many extra judicial killings in gaza do we even know about? The point about antisemitism is when people only focus in Israel and pretend its faults are unique.

Some of the things you reference are the function of a terrible war against an enemy that has no rule of law that we would recognise and no functioning democratic system. You can't judge Israel fully against abstract ideals.

As explained many, many times.

To those who say that the boycott was motivated by anti semitism, would you say that the countries trying to kick Russia out were Russophobic? This is the type of argument Putin and his buddies use to keep him there.

The fact is that it has taken public action for governments to do anything at all to deal with the corrupt IDF/Israeli government. It is a sad reality and I feel like it is this in part that motivates people to be louder about Israel.

I assure you that if Russia hadn’t been sanctioned so heavily, we would be doing the same with Russia. If more people were aware about what Azerbaijan had done, they would be just as loud about kicking them out as they are about Israel.

If people were here 24/7 defending the taliban or waving away the deaths of innocent Sudanese people then you can be damn sure there would be 1000s of posts around the issue. That's what happens when people post controversial things. It is controversial to defend attacks on every single hospital in a territory. It is controversial to call the killing of 10s of children 'peace'. It's controversial to defend the killing of aid workers and journalists.

Defend what some people see as indefencible and you will get pushback. It's not rocket science and it's not antisemitism. Start a thread defending Ukrainian children being killed, describe them as 'collateral damage' and talk about how that's just what happens in wars and people are dumb and racist for being upset by it and see how you get on.

My criticisms of the Israeli government are motivated by many things. I am left wing. Its a right wing government. I am against corruption
Netanyahu is obviously corrupt. Im not a fan of minority coalition governments, Israeli politics is often distorted by the dynamic of coalition bargaining. Just a few things.
But I am not Israeli. I don't vote in Israel. Noone ever questions me about my view of internal German or Zambian or Chliean politics
So the question remains, why are so many people so motivated by opposing Israel. 100s of threads on Israel and Palestine. The obsession is wildly disproportionate. Why do we go over this over and over again? I and so many others have explained again and again. I mean obviously some of the motivation is antisemitic. Rather than keeping on questioning me why not do some research?

What else would criticism of Israel be motivated by?

Anti-Semitism?

Do you believe that people criticising the Israel government on these boards are anti-Semitic? Do you accept that at least some of them are motivated by genuine concern for Palestinian lives?

Do you have any criticism of Israel at all? And if so, what is that motivated by?

I am not trying to catch you out. I’m trying to understand your reasoning so we get to a stage where we can have a genuine conversation without accusations of anti-semitism / lack of empathy flying about.