By: Gašper Blažič
The word “hurricane” is relatively seldom used in public discourse, at least regarding weather. Usually, synonyms such as “tropical cyclone” or “typhoon” are employed. Of course, it denotes an extremely destructive weather phenomenon, which should not be confused with ordinary cyclones, which are centres of low air pressure. In a figurative sense, it can also signify any other devastating occurrence. Such as what happened on October 7th last year with the mass attack by Hamas on Israel, both with rockets and with kidnappings and rapes (leaving aside the inactivity of Israeli security services).
You have probably guessed that by hurricane I am also alluding to the song of the Israeli representative at this year’s Eurovision, Eden Golan. And we can agree with what she sang in the lyrics: not many words are needed, just prayer. Especially since Eurovision has been nothing but show business for at least a quarter of a century, where – despite its declared apolitical nature – political agendas continue to expand. In favour of promoting “diversity”. From various “male sisters” to “binary individuals”. One of (at least) two “binaries” won this year. Because that is what the expert juries wanted, who must first adhere to the dictates of some agenda. Musical and stage expression are of secondary importance here. Eurovision is simply no longer what it was half a century ago, when the group ABBA – yes, it is an abbreviation of the members of that quartet, but realistically this name in ancient Aramaic means “father” and can also be found in the Holy Bible – celebrated with the song Waterloo.
Memory of the Eurovision “male sisters”
When it comes to Eurovision itself, it is often unclear what is better: giving more weight to expert juries or to the public. Our representative was not chosen by the public. However, this reminded me of the selection of the Slovenian representative for Eurovision in 2002. If I previously mentioned the “male sisters”, men dressed as women, you will remember the drama that unfolded during the voting. In the final selection, Karmen Stavec with the song “Še in še” garnered by far the most favour from the public (almost 32 thousand phone votes), which was almost four times more than “Sisters” with their quite catchy song “Samo ljubezen” (a little over eight thousand). According to the scoreboard, the public gave “Sisters” five points, while Karmen Stavec received 12. However, there were two juries involved: the expert jury and the jury of the Entertainment Programme of TV Slovenia. The expert jury consisted of Mojmir Sepe, Aleš Strajnar, and Drago Ivanuša, while the TV Slovenia Entertainment Programme jury included Simona Tepeš, Mira Bučar, and Anton Natek. Both juries awarded the highest number of points to “Sisters”, which was enough for them to win (a total of 29 points). Karmen Stavec received only one point less and would have easily won if there had been only one jury available. Due to significant issues with phone voting, Ema Song Competition in 2002 turned into a scandal immediately after the event. I remember vividly the heavily attended press conference that followed the Ema, where I posed uncomfortable questions. Well, the spry 90-year-old Tone Fornezzi-Tof wrote the following joke at the time: “Why did Karmen Stavec not win? Because she does not have balls.”
Of course, I mention this episode from 2002 more casually and as an illustration of what happened in the last few days, when there was a series of politically motivated pressures so that the representative of Israel would not appear. Well, in the end, it all turned into a scandal, because on the day of the final itself, the Dutch representative was disqualified, and they tried to hide the reason and thus start speculations that he became a victim of the “Jewish lobby” because he politically stands up for a “just cause”. So, the basic premise of pro-Palestinian activists (from Greta Thumberg to some who were supposed to announce the results but cancelled at the last minute) is that the EBU should ban Israel for the same reasons it banned Russia two years ago because of the attack on Ukraine. As if to say, genocide, and systematic extermination of the already small and oppressed Palestinian nation is taking place. In short, a textbook example of how the complicated mess of the Middle East can be seemingly simplified and presented to decadent Westerners in the way that Hamas wants with its allies, which are also not so few in Europe. And it is not just about the Muslims living there.
Hamas’ propaganda war
The fact is that the war in the Middle East is a global propaganda war or, as our “uncrowned king” Milan Kučan has repeatedly said, a “battle for interpretation”. What is happening in Gaza now has happened before. Many years ago, Israeli rockets were repeatedly fired at Gaza and caused destruction. The Israeli army is considered to be on the offensive, and it was illusory to expect that it would not respond to the violence of Hamas. Be careful, we are talking about what has been going on for several years, but since last October it has only been much more intense. Practically all the time, what had already been seen was repeated: when the Hamas fired their shots, they hid in mouse holes, and the civilians – just like the Bolsheviks! – exposed as a human shield. Because “there must be victims”. And then the Ministry of Health in Gaza – of course, it is a body controlled by Hamas – with the assistance of the Red Crescent, explains to all the world’s media how brutally Israel is killing Palestinians. Just because they are Palestinians.
Only a few media outlets in Slovenia, including Demokracija and Nova24TV, tried to counter the daily repetition of the story of the alleged genocide in the last six months. Mainly because the story of the territory that the ancient Romans named Palestine has already had a very long beard. But let’s repeat very briefly: when the state of Israel was founded in 1948, after numerous efforts by the West to settle the complicated situation in the Middle East after the end of the Second World War, the new state was attacked practically the very next day by its Arab neighbours. All subsequent attempts at peace proposals failed one after the other, mainly because the Palestinian Arabs rejected all solutions a priori, and the Israelis’ trust in their Palestinian interlocutors was declining due to continuous terrorist actions, which often took place in a very insidious manner. Gaza has a particularly unfavourable historical role here, because it has served as a stronghold of the enemies of the chosen people since the Old Testament times (at that time, it was the Philistines who cunningly kidnapped the Israeli judge Samson and murdered him in Gaza). It is also a fact that modern Gaza is a kind of small enclave with a very large number of people, the vast majority of whom are permanent hostages of Hamas terrorism. And they are much more afraid of Hamas rockets because they know that Israeli ones will follow suit. The tragedy of the people of Gaza is that the attackers are all the time hidden in tunnels (through them they also get weapons from elsewhere), and the civilians are all the time exposed to projectiles, because they have nowhere to retreat. In any case, Hamas is the master of life and death in Gaza.
From the river to the sea…
There is also the question of why Golob’s government has just now embarked on a campaign to recognise Palestine, which was recognised by the already disintegrated SFRY, and Slovenia has had a consular representation there for more than fifteen years? We now know that the core of the recognition and pressure on the West to recognise Palestine lies in the fact that Israel would then be formally condemned much more easily as a genocidal state, because it occupies and destroys another sovereign state. The current situation in Israel is such that a significant part of the country belongs to the Palestinian self-government, called the West Bank. This situation is of course difficult for both sides. By giving up all terrorism, it would be possible to find an Israeli-Palestinian agreement in the long run. But as we know, because of Hamas’ all-or-nothing exclusivism – namely that Israel has no right to exist and that “from the river to the sea” is an Arab land – this peace process resembles the “hamster wheel” effect.
And it is because of such “politics” that innocent people die! On both sides, both Israeli and Palestinian!
The left is not only against Christianity, but also against Judaism
However, there is no place for omniscience. However, I believe that the quiet unprincipled alliance of the European left, which has a strong influence on the pop scene, with Palestinian fundamentalism is conditioned by many reasons. This is not only about opposition to US policy, but about the silent awareness that Judaism, which saw the fulfilment of the promise of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel three quarters of a century ago, represents the root of Christian civilisation. No matter how conflicted the relationship between Christians and Jews has been in history. National Socialist (!) Adolf Hitler is – even with the help of the Mufti of Jerusalem! – wanted to destroy Judaism once and for all, precisely with the intention of making it much easier to deal with Christians as well. Therefore, he built a system of parallel religion while revitalising old Germanic religions and occult practices. The international socialists cultivate very similar ideas, namely by destroying Christianity in Europe, which would make it easier to implement their ideological agenda, which would also represent the spiritual side of man. Let’s not forget that the old Marxism with the old mantra that religion is the “intoxication of the people” was exhausted by 1968 at the latest. The appearance of various satanic phenomena on stage this year at the Eurovision Song Contest – the representative of Ireland particularly stood out here, but let’s be honest, even the representative of Croatia was not far behind her, even though he had a solid composition – this only confirms it.
Leftists are especially angry because their attempt to prolong the conflict between (Western) Christians and Jews and to sow a permanent schism between them has failed. Therefore, the uncultured howling of part of the audience in the hall in Malmö was more of an expression of helplessness. The organisers of the festival can be blamed for decadence and the presence of a left-wing agenda in pop culture (which they obviously support because it brings profit), but we cannot blame them for succumbing to political pressure. Although some will point the finger at them, that the controversial Dutch representative Joost Klein was unjustly disqualified precisely because of politics, and he de facto attacked an Israeli journalist (it does not even matter if he simply lost his temper or if he is already used to being a blonde “Aryan” shows his antipathy towards Israel, but he would probably make a worse scene in the case of his appearance).
In short, the hurricane passed us by, leaving behind a bitter aftertaste that the Eurovision did not betray the tradition of supporting bizarre views on gender identity. But we are at least comforted by the fact that most people did not give in to the severe pressure to increase hatred towards Israel. The question is whether this hurricane can come back soon and leave behind the devastation that Cyclone Tracy did in Australia in 1974 – the year Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest…
P.S. At the same time, I want to clarify that due to the agenda that dominates the Eurovision, I have not been following it for a long time. I had to make an exception this year because of the extraordinary politically motivated interest in this event.