Irish viewers of the Eurovision won’t need to be told how geographical isolation can affect a country’s chances.
Votes from nearby states probably won’t win the contest for you but they can make the difference between a decent placing and finishing rock bottom. It’s good to have neighbours – all of which makes Israel’s victory last night all the more remarkable.
No Eurovision competitor is as isolated as Israel. It has lots of neighbours but they don’t take part in the Eurovision and – in any case – most of them would be more likely to send douze Qassam or Fajr missiles to Israel than douze points.
The total score that a song gets in the Eurovision is made up of:
- The marks it gets from the juries in all participating countries and,
- The marks it gets from the public vote in all participating countries
Public Vote Proves BDS Fail
The Israeli singer, Netta Barzilai was well positioned in third place after the juries vote but it was the public vote that gave her an emphatic victory by nearly 100 points.From Iceland to Azerbaijan, from Portugal to Finland, it was the ordinary people of Europe who rated the Israeli entry as their favourite.
Readers will be aware that there is an ongoing BDS campaign (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions) by various self-styled Palestinian solidarity groups aimed at delegitimizing the State of Israel. Founded in 2005, those who advocate it never miss an opportunity to try to associate the name of Israel with terms like “rogue state”, “pariah”, “racist”, “fascist”, and “apartheid”. It purports to be about promoting Palestinian rights but is really about promoting hatred of Israel and Israelis. Netta’s victory last night will be a huge disappointment to the BDSers, especially since they were specifically targeting the contest hoping that Israel would get no votes!
BDSers initially wanted to inflict damage on the Israeli economy but that has continuously failed with the country consistently posting levels of growth that most other countries can only dream of. More recently, the BDS campaign has deteriorated into a mean-minded and spiteful targeting on social media of any artist who is planning to perform in Israel. However, for all their efforts over the last thirteen years, their malicious campaign has had no effect and the people of Europe got the quirky, inventive, high energy entry sung with such chutzpah by Netta. Have a listen below – if you haven’t already – and here’s to the Eurovision, next year in Jerusalem!
by Editorial
