Eurovision’s anti-Israel mob behaved like brats
When the Irish Eurovision contestant Bambie Thug failed to bully Israel’s competitor out of the contest being staged in the Swedish town of Malmo, Thug did what today’s culture warriors feel is an appropriate reaction when they don’t get their way: the singer had a meltdown and burst into tears.
Thug, an individual who identifies as non-binary and who performed a pagan satanic routine as a kind of goblinesque goth, had demanded that Israel’s entrant, Eden Golan, be barred from the contest because … well, because of course all Israelis everywhere should be shunned and hounded and cancelled by the entire human race because of the war in Gaza.
Asked how it had felt when Golan qualified for the contest’s final, the goblin replied, choking back the tears: “I cried with my team.”
Of course! Because the protest was all about them, to demonstrate their virtue as victims of … well, Israel’s existence, not to put too fine a point on it; and to demonstrate the frankly intolerable human cost to themselves of their principled stand of resistance. “The world has spoken!” cried Thug triumphantly, gulping back principled sobs.
Except the world hadn’t quite said what Thug – speaking from within the alternative universe where Israel’s fight for its life against a genocidal enemy is itself denounced as an act of genocide – thought the world had said. Because in the real world people had seen something rather different.
They saw a vast mob on the streets of Malmo supporting the “Palestinian resistance” – ie terrorism against Israeli Jews – and besieging a young Israeli singer to force her out of the contest. They saw that this young woman was unable to leave her hotel room because of the threats against her of kidnap, rape and murder.
They saw that more than 100 police officers, a motorcade and a helicopter were needed to escort her to the venue. They saw this wasn’t a protest but a potential lynch mob.
Backstage, Golan was shunned and abused by fellow contestants. From the rehearsals to the final, she was forced to sing her song of Israeli pain, reflecting the enduring trauma of the October 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel, to an accompaniment of booing and chants for “Palestine”.
Contrary to the goblin’s assumption, the result was rather wonderful. Golan actually came fifth out of 37, one place ahead of Thug. Moreover, in country after country, the public (as opposed to the juries of national judges also casting votes) backed Golan.
The British audience, whose national jury awarded her zero points, awarded Golan the full 12, as did 13 other countries. Even Ireland awarded her ten points. From this swell of public support, Golan finished with the second-highest number of public votes.
That popular triumph was surely why Thug and the whole satanic team burst into tears. It’s what children do. When thwarted, they have a tantrum, stamp their foot and cry.
Other contestants similarly behaved in a childish way. The Greek entrant, 37-year-old Marina Satti, extravagantly mimed being asleep while Golan spoke at a press conference.
Today’s anti-Israel protesters generally behave like children. With the obligatory Arab keffiyeh round their necks as their accessory of choice, they dress up in the costume of the fairytales they have been taught about a looking-glass world in which the roles of monsters and heroes are totally reversed.
On his Substack website, the sociologist Frank Furedi argues that the anti-Israel protesters on campus illustrate a fundamental transformation of the university. In the 1960s and 1970s, he writes, university students were treated as adults responsible for their own lives. It was assumed they were mature enough to conduct their own personal affairs and if things went wrong, they were expected to live with the consequences.
Today, “therapy culture” has turned students into children who must be insulated against all adversity, criticism and pressure. Universities prepare advertising brochures for parents whom they tacitly promise to keep their children safe. Such a transformation, says Furedi, has turned students into biologically mature children.
This infantilisation of the young surely lies behind today’s performative and self-seeking protest culture and “snowflake” meltdowns over campus “micro-aggressions” and “safe spaces”.
This is in obscene contrast to the pro-Gaza mob’s own aggression against the victims of the genocidal agenda that resulted in the murder, rape, torture and kidnap of Israelis, with the threat that these atrocities will be repeated again and again until Israel is destroyed.
What a contrast Eden Golan presents to these infantilised individuals. She’s only 20 years old yet she behaved with astonishing courage, self-possession and gracious dignity in the face of the baying mobs. The booing, she said, had only made her stronger.
In Israel, she has become a symbol of resistance against baseless hatred; the civilian equivalent of the 20-year-olds and other young Israeli conscripts who are at this moment laying down their lives in their country’s desperate war against evil.
Furedi observes that therapy culture has reframed the life challenges faced by young people as mental disorder. Judging by the satanic goblin’s tearful, profanity-laden rants and the carnival of performative depravity Eurovision has become, many might think a reverse process is under way and that mental disorder has transformed itself into faddish causes.
The Times
More Coverage
Read related topics:Israel
Join the conversation
German spy planes to join UK hunt for Putin’s subs
German spy planes will take off from Scotland next year to help protect the North Atlantic following concerns about Russian submarines close to the UK.
Read more
What’s next for Hamas? Guerrilla tactics by patient fighters
The death of Yahya Sinwar seems to have ‘inspired’ militants. Now they are planning a war of attrition against Israel, returning to small-unit tactics to tire Jerusalem into a ceasefire deal.
Read more