Israel’s Yuval Raphael clinched second place in tonight’s #Eurovision, a stunning achievement and one of which both she and the country should be very proud. At the same time, the jarring disconnect between the public vote—which she won—and the vote of the national juries, which outrageously placed her 15th overall, demands answers. The European public must insist that its juries award their points based on professional considerations alone. Had they done so, there is no question that Yuval would have won, as Eden Golan would have last year. If the juries are unable to prevent their bigoted politics from skewing their votes, as they obviously did, perhaps it’s time for @EBU_HQ to take a look at how the juries are selected and how much weight their votes carry. This cannot go on. This episode also raises sharp questions about the extent to which the supposed hatred of Israel in Europe is manufactured, representing a small, sneering elite as opposed to broad public sentiment. The voting publics in no fewer than 13 countries—including Spain, whose prime minister this week called Israel “genocidal”—gave Yuval top marks, and even countries known as sharp critics of Israel’s—like Ireland and Norway, which tried to get the Jewish state banned from the competition—awarded Israel generous points. Perhaps it is the elites that are out of step with their publics, not Israel. Yuval Raphael deserved to win tonight, and to millions across Europe – she did. 🇮🇱
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