"I prayed for a hug"

Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis · May 19, 2026 · 2m

The boos started almost immediately in Basel (the same city, ironically, where Herzl held the First Zionist Congress in 1897). As Yuval Raphael stepped onto the Eurovision stage last year, in May 2025, portions of the crowd made clear that she was not welcome. Flags waved. The room echoed with the jeers with which we’re all now familiar. The point of the protesters was clear — no one from Israel was welcome.

It was ugly, just as it was this year when Noam Bettan sang and was booed and still came in second. Strangely, though, it was also, by any reasonable measure, not even close to the worst…