A great and beautiful singer.. well earned top 5 finish . We must protect her as well against the anti Semitic animals. Death to Hamas!
It's kind of an old-fashioned thing, a tradition. Used to be even bigger when each country only had 1-2 TV stations. Used to be kind of a matter of national pride, but nowadays, like in many aspects of life, shrill and woke acts have taken over. And of course, the voting mechanisms changed many times over the years. Now it's a mix of a "jury" per country and a popular vote. Israel got 0 points from many juries, but got the 2nd highest popular vote overall, and got the most votes in many countries.
I honestly didn’t know about the Eurovision event until the Netflix movie embarrassingly I have to admit.,,But what I like about it is they have to sing in English a majority of the songs it appears I could be wrong but it actually introduces us to different nations, different singers that we otherwise wouldn’t know. Last year top Eurovision song “tattoo” is on my playlist as an example and my daughter who often works with me in my business put that on her playlist as well …A lot of times the show theatrics are a little over the top but that’s kind of the going thing with the Eurovision songs as well that makes it unique
Israel, under the current leadership, has no plan, and they will end up with a very costly mistake if they don't heed the warnings and concerns from the US. Hamas is already coming back to part of the area Israel cleared and left. The people of Israel deserve much better leadership. SECRETARY BLINKEN: We believe two things. One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven't seen. Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza is open- is over. And we still haven't seen that because what are we seeing right now? We're seeing parts of Gaza that Israel has- has cleared of Hamas, where Hamas is coming back, including in the North, including in Khan Younis. As we look at- at Rafah, they may go in and have some initial success, but- but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians, but one that is not durable, one that's not sustainable. And they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah. Or if they- if they leave and get out of Gaza as we believe they need to do, then you're going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that's likely to be filled by chaos by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again. So we've been working for many, many weeks on developing credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding. We haven't seen that come from Israel, we've been working with Arab countries and others on that plan. We need to see that too. We have the same objective as Israel. We want to make sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza again. We want to make sure it's demilitarized. We want to make sure that Israel gets its leaders. That's what we're determining. We have a different way. And we think a more effective, durable way of getting that done. We remain in conversation with Israel about exactly that. Thomas Friedman OP: Netanyahu has managed to persuade and cajole Israel’s army leadership and people to fight this war in Gaza for more than seven months with no plan for how to get out and consolidate whatever military victory has been achieved. This is a direct result of the fact that in December 2022, Netanyahu formed the most extreme, far-right cabinet in Israel’s history — to get back into power and stave off his trial on corruption charges. The Jewish supremacists in his cabinet will not let Netanyahu form any partnership with the non-Hamas Palestinian Authority that governs in the West Bank for fear it could lead to a Palestinian state there and in Gaza. That means the morning after any triumph over Hamas, Israel will either leave Gaza and have on its border some kind of gang-governed Somalia, where Hamas would most likely re-emerge under new leadership — as it has after Israel assassinated its previous generation of leaders — or Israel will find itself permanently occupying both Gaza and the West Bank, where it is already in charge. Together, about seven million Israeli Jews would be permanently controlling about five million Palestinian Arabs in two occupied territories, which would be a moral, economic and military overstretch that would delight Iran — because it would hasten Israel’s descent into being a global pariah. It’s a grave mistake to underestimate the danger the current Netanyahu government poses to Israel and its relationship with the United States and the world. Amos Harel, a veteran military correspondent for Haaretz, quoted a senior Israeli military commander on Friday, who summed up the situation better than I ever could: “The best way to harm Hamas now is by presenting a governmental alternative in Gaza. That’s not happening because the prime minister doesn’t want it. Every week, senior defense officials meet with foreign diplomats and generals. The repeated question is: What the blazes are you trying to achieve now? We don’t have a real answer for them.” Look at what is already happening as a result, Harel added. The Israeli Army has withdrawn so many of its troops from Gaza, save for the fresh units now surrounding Rafah and holding the central corridor dividing Gaza from north to south, that “Hamas is taking back governance in Gaza by every means,” Harel said. “Hamas’s efforts to restore governance also include the resumption of activity by the sharia courts, municipal services and sanitation departments in the municipalities.”
Israel's leadership is not extremist. If you are a left-wing extremist, common sense conservatives look like "extremists" to you.
"If you are a right-wing extremist, right-wing extremists look like common-sense conservatives" is the same take. Call it whatever you want, the current leadership of Israel has no plan and is on the verge of a costly mistake if it doesn't heed the warnings and concerns of the US.
The thing is, Israel must clear Gaza of Hamas, and they will, with or without American support. So Biden resisting it to appease Muslim voters in Michigan makes him look both anti-Israel and ineffectual.
