Eurovision and Israel

[tinyme77]

As several countries had boycotted Eurovision as Israel hadn't been kicked out of it following it's bombing of Palestine and starting a war against Iran I was expecting them to get no votes. Please can someone explain why anyone voted for them.

Typical anti semetic dog whistle right here.

Thanks for announcing yourself at least.

Do you also think we should go back to Poland?!

A few things:

Israel qualifies for Eurovision because it's a member of the European Broadcasting Union - and has been since the 50s - and so are (or were) many other non-European countries. Azerbaijan, Australia etc.

Russia is barred because it invaded another European country and commits terrorism and stealth warfare in many other European countries - including the UK where UK citizens have been killed in recent years on UK soil by Russian terrorism. It's not just a question of politics but of event security. (I personally feel a bit ambiguous about Russian sanctions because there is impact on innocent Russian citizens. EV let Ireland participate while Irish republicans were conducting a mainland bombing campaign in the UK.)

It's just a song contest. It's not anything important like the World Cup. Many people vote just based on the songs in it.

A lot of British people like and support Israel regardless of their personal feelings about Netanyahu / Gaza.

Many people do not believe that Israel is committing genocide and many people think Israel's actions were justified after October 7.

If you live in a pro-Palestinian bubble and constantly yell at anyone buying Israeli dates or having a Eurovision party or drinking a Coke that they are genocidal baby killer apologists then you probably shut down any debate and rarely hear alternative views. I think as with shy tories there are a lot of shy zionists.

The Eurovision voting rules were changed this year because Israel was accused of harvesting votes and cheating. But they still came second so...

The public gave Israel ten points. They knew what they were doing. It’s the silent majority saying they’ve had enough of the terrorist supporting PA shouters. We need to protect our Jewish citizens in the UK.

Ha. Schrodingers Israelis that are simultaneously European settlers but also shouldn't be allowed to be in Eurovision because they aren't European.

There’s actually some pretty credible evidence that Israel manipulate the public vote.

It's just a song contest. It's not anything important like the World Cup. Many people vote just based on the songs in it.

That's the most outrageous thing said on this thread. The World Cup is just football. It's not anything important.

"Some people think football is a matter of life and death... I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Bill Shankly

In the World Cup's defence - it is an actual sport. There are winners and losers based on one simple metric. A song contest is just a dumb idea. How can you put in any objective criteria into deciding the best song? That's why it's so politically fraught and manipulated.

See, I think it makes it far more interesting that opinion/taste can make a difference.

"To run around after a little ball is supremely ridiculous" - Josephine Tey

I don't even watch Eurovision for the winner - for the spectacle, the talent and the performances. I've become the top 1% listener of a few artists if never have heard of but for Eurovision.

Because of a phone vote campaign.. like they have done for the past 3 years. Eurovision has had to change the rules around phone votes because of it.

after what happened at the Nova festival, I always find it profoundly moving to see Israel participating in the song contest.

I never vote but I hope Jewish people take some comfort from Israel’s success - I think it indicates quiet solidarity.

Thank you for all your thoughts. It's good to hear rational ideas why people think differently to me.

But it doesn't indicate anything unless you know who is voting, how many times and why.

And this year is different to last year - Israel and the US are involved in an unpopular non-domestic war which has spiked fuel and COL and stalled the housing market. I don't think many people who generally support Israel re: Palestine are happy about those things.

Why? They rig the vote and by all accounts their delegation is pretty unpleasant to everyone around them.

You’re conflating Judaism and Israel. There are lots of Christians and Arabs in Israel too. There are many Jewish people who despise Israel and what Israel is doing (genocide, invading Lebanon, etc). Being Jewish is not the same as being from Israel.

Refusing to support a genocidal apartheid state which has slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians is not antisemitic. And being pro-Palestine doesn’t mean you’re “pro-terrorist”, as you say. Maybe you could put down the Daily Mail for a while and read some more books?

Maybe you should get out of your algorithmic bubble too.

I watch the Eurovision Song Contest although I don’t vote in it. Israel had a pretty good song.

I think I’ve said it on here before but the pro Palestinian protestors really hurt their own cause. I am in north London and have seen the ripped down posters of Israeli hostages. There are people who come door to door to ask people not to buy Israeli produce. That woman in Muswell Hill who cut down yellow ribbons lives a bus ride from here. The demonstrations are really frequent and disruptive.

All this stuff does is piss off the people who don’t think exactly the way the activists do. It makes me feel more, not less, sympathy for Israel.

“They” rig the vote do they?

well that tracks because we all know that Jews are super sneaky and control the media, don’t we?

There's a good article in the NY times about voting patterns, the gist of which is that in general voting numbers are pretty low and in almost any given country it only takes a relatively small number of passionate voters (who are, let's face it, voting for political support reasons not because they like the song) to sway the vote heavily in favour of a particular country. So there's no need to buy into a big conspiracy about mass organised voting to know that Israel do well because they have strong political support from a small minority of dedicated politically motivated voters in some countries. In fact the same is true (to a much lesser extent) of Ukraine who have consistently done better than their songs warrant since the invasion.

I'm on the fence about Israel's participation but it's ludicrous to claim they're doing so well because their songs are great. Their songs are fine but they wouldn't be close to winning in normal years.

I thought their last win was a great song. Still listen to it sometimes.

I am Jewish and Israeli (by birth) and voted for Poland as I liked that song the best. Israel’s song was pretty good and they carried themselves with pride after being booed and yelled at and ignored by other contestants. They need extra security because of all this nonsense and they still keep showing up. A lot of people respect that.

None of those are actually currently doing genocide.

agree with the OP and wondered the same.

I guess it’s always been generally about more than the song, I don’t agree with Isreal’s bombing of Palestine and Gaza - I am disgusted that they were allowed to participate with what’s going on there… it’s a farce

And for everyone saying, all wide eyed and innocent, “But it’s a song contest!”. Yeah, right.

Not wide eyed and innocent - just don't put political bullshit on a talent contest. It's puerile.

it’s been like that FOREVER!

Thanks for the shouty capital letters - I am aware - I'm 47! Doesn't make it any less stupid does it? Imagine if this was the way we sorted out all global conflict! I think it's unbelievably ridiculous. It's the whole reason that the sarcastic BBC commentary started too - because it is bloody stupid.