To spite the woke, my vote went to Israel’s Miss Courage
THE absurdity of the anti-Israel mob knows no bounds – including the famously silly ragbag of awful singing acts that is Eurovision.
Anti-Israel feeling is running so high among a vast global mob, including entertainers, that singers desperate to win are willing to sacrifice it all out of rage at the Jewish state for its response to Hamas’s invasion on Oct 7.
There is a surreal irony that so many ‘liberals’’ are turning against the one country in the Middle East where they would not only get out alive, but have a lovely time while they’re at it.
Take gay rights. Since its campaign in Gaza began, Israel is apparently also to blame for its world-beating record of protecting gay people, some of whom are now accusing the country of “pink washing”. It’s a cruelly dismissive – and self-defeating – charge.
The treatment of Eden Golan, Israel’s entrant to this year’s Eurovision in Sweden, has been appalling. This would perhaps not be a surprise for any other event, given the monstrous madness of the anti-Israel sentiment sweeping the West.
But coming from those who once cheered on Dana International and Netta Barzilai to victory in 1998 and 2018, it is vile hypocrisy. It also lends an unpleasant and incongruous aura to the light-hearted event – all that booing of Golan, calls for boycott and protesting because of her presence (a 12,000-strong throng, including Greta Thunberg, appeared outside the semi-final on Thursday).
Golan’s security has been so perilous that Ronen Bar, the head of Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, flew to Malmo to oversee her security, and all 20 of the Israeli delegation were instructed to stay in their hotel rooms.
“It’s incredible that in the middle of a war, Shin Bet’s head felt the need to go to Malmo because of the safety fears,” a source said. Indeed.
Meanwhile, the absurdity of the claim that Golan, who grew up in Moscow (the family left in 2022), is culpable for anything geopolitical is highlighted by the fact that her mother is Ukrainian, once a reason for sympathy. Perhaps because she is Ukrainian-Jewish it doesn’t matter.
I always enjoy the Israeli act, and am impressed by her courage. I will be watching for her sake and it’s not hard to guess where my vote will go.