Israel's need to artwash the genocide continues to bring Eurovision to its knees - and the EBU, the BBC and others continue to facilitate that

At this time last year, someone left a comment on this blog to say that they'd actually been hoping for an Israeli win, because the prospect of a contest in Tel Aviv would have caused the whole house of cards to collapse.  I didn't agree with that sentiment then, but I'm starting to see the point.  If Israel had won tonight, the boycott next year would inevitably have been far more extensive, enough to call into question the viability of the event, and at the very least that would have forced the EBU to consider switching to an alternative host country - which would have raised the question of why Israel were being allowed to compete at all.  Instead, the EBU will presumably be emboldened to just carry on with the farce of Israel finishing second every year as a matter of routine, regardless of the quality of their song, and expect everyone to treat it as totally normal - even though it is effectively happening as a direct reward for genocide.  The phonomenon of mass bloc voting for Israel didn't get underway until the genocide started in 2023.

Towards the end of the show, the presenters gazed kindly and patronisingly into the camera and reassured the boycotting countries that they would be welcome back any time.  But of course the reassurance those countries actually needed to hear was that the reason for their boycott would at long last be addressed - either by Israel bringing the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Lebanon to an end, or by the EBU banning Israel until such time as those necessary steps are taken.  It's actually disrespectful of the EBU to suggest that any country should return to the contest until their concerns are taken seriously and resolved.

As for the winner, it demonstrates why I've given up trying to predict Eurovision.  There was a time, maybe two, three or four decades ago, when you would hear the infuriatingly catchy novelty entry and think "nailed-on winner", but the contest seemed to have decisively moved on from that and anyone who had predicted a winner on that basis would have seemed hopelessly dated.  It's not totally clear to me why the Bulgarian song proved to be such a glaring exception to the general rule - the staging was fresh and imaginative, but the same was true of a few other entries as well.  But the song itself obviously had some sort of X factor given that it won both the jury vote and the public vote.

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Catch up with Wednesday night's blogpost: "S*** just got real, lads. The famously always wrong blogger "Stew", who said there was "zero chance, barring nuclear war or an alien invasion" of the Holyrood election producing a pro-indy majority, and who said betting on Angus Robertson to win Edinburgh Central was "free money", has now said there is "NO chance" of victory in a 2029 de facto referendum. Looks like it's ON."

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