Israel’s Yuval Raphael tops Eurovision public vote, finishes in 2nd place as Austria wins
Yuval Raphael, a 24-year-old amateur singer from Ra’anana, survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. She played dead and hid under a pile of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter for hours, with shrapnel embedded in her leg, until she was ultimately rescued.
Raphael received the most votes from the public, 297, out of any of the 26 finalists, but was only 14th place in the jury vote, landing Israel with a second-place finish.
Comment from Valerie Sobel re EUROVISION 2025
Eurovision scoring is a combination of jury and public voting. You cannot vote for your own country. Israel wins the popular vote hands down, but comes in second place because of the jury’s age-old disease and lack of courage, not to mention moral clarity. The Jury, having trembling knees from the start because …
1) the usual antisemitic countries like Ireland demanded Israel’s elimination from the contest altogether
2) pro-Palestinian Hamas groups protesting nonstop in Basel
3) audience pro-Palestinian Hamas groups, making their Jew-hating positions known during Yuval’s performances by booing and yelling
…and today during the final competition of Yuval’s performance, these pro-Palestinian savages tried to make their way onto the stage before being stopped by security. But they came close. They ended up dumping paint onto one of the crew members who was injured. But what the jury did ultimately was a consequence of something else, for the most part. Something much more consequential. The jury understood very well that if Israel wins… the next contest has to be held in Israel. Should I say anymore…?
Today’s result was a very convenient and safe conclusion to what could’ve been a very uncomfortable and contentious future for Eurovision’s next contest. The organization would probably have to succumb to the pressure by boycotting countries and deny Israel the next Eurovision contest. Subsequently, it would have to find a country that would host it on behalf of Israel. Now imagine one European country that would come forward….?! Lol…I can’t. Ok, Hungary. They simply dodged one. And they made sure that they did.
Nothing changes. Jew-hatred is an incurable but accepted and unquestioned disease.
Second place in this type of politicaly-judged competition and in today’s morally upside down world is a phenomenal achievement. Yuval beat incredible odds stacked against her.
Ben Gurion once famously said, “In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.” Today was one!
Am Yisrael Chai, indeed.