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Comment by shevy-java | Hacker News Reader

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Israel's public broadcaster is a long time member of the European Broadcasting Union, which has nothing to do with EU, and honestly not all that much to do with Europe either. EBU organizes Eurovision. Why Israel's public broadcaster wanted to be part of EBU I don't know, cultural identification with Europe I guess? You'd have to ask them.

But either way that's not the scandal. The scandal is that Russia's broadcaster got kicked out for Russia doing bad things (fair enough) but Israel's was kept in despite their government doing even worse things.

Simple, for one the ITU region assignment, there's a bunch of other countries in Africa and Asia that are in the European Broacasting Area and thus eligible to join the EBU.

The other thing more applies to other sports like soccer, most Arab countries (but especially Iran) will not accept having to work with Israel because it would require them to accept Israel as a legitimate country.

Yeah, the scandal is about different members being held to different standards. Why are Azerbaijan and Israel allowed to stay while Russia got kicked out? Especially since Azerbaijan and Israel both have manipulated the voting in addition to waging wars.

> ...while Russia got kicked out?

For starters, neither Israel nor Azerbaijan threaten Europe with nuklear annihilation on a nearly weekly basis.

Europe was created on the explicit premise of opposing Russia.

Yeah, Azerbaijan is another which is often forgotten. Honestly, it seems Eurovision is mostly interesting for countries that need PR help. I'd be happy to see the whole thing go, it's outlived what little purpose it had.

Because Russia is an enemy of Europe while Israel is an ally.

> Eurovision is also stupid. Why is Israel part of it? That makes zero sense, even way aside from what war criminal Netanyahu is doing - it's not a european country. Something is wrong with the word EU. It constantly seeks to expand. So that is now a misnomer.

Eligibility to compete is not based on country, but my membership to the European Braodcasting Union of which Israel is a member, and Australian SBS is an associate member and was allowed to compete as a special case.

Don't bring Eurovision into it. Learn to lighten up and have some fun instead.

Agree, any country in the world should be able to participate in ESC, as long as the country agrees with peace, love and understanding. So yes, please ban Israel as soon as possible, together with any other countries that don't share these three very basic principles, that seemingly is easy for all the other participants to follow.

I get that they’ve done dodgy things in the past.

And I agree that they should behave in a consistent manner.

But it’s a song contest…

> Don't bring Eurovision into it. Learn to lighten up and have some fun instead.

So then why was Russia kicked out?

> Learn to lighten up and have some fun instead.

Easy to say if you haven't experienced the killings

UK does not pay.

The EU is likely to develop a military at some point and has some defence cooperation. if you do not trust the US, that means you cannot rely on NATO, which means you need some alternative.

> Right now it seems to me that e. g. Carney, and Leyen, use this more as promo-tour.

I agree. It might be meant as a threat to influence US policy.

That could be a european Nato though, doesn't mean you need literally one EU army

Yes, and it might be a good idea. It should probably not be part of the EU though - there are a number of non-EU countries you would want in a European NATO such as the UK, Norway and Iceland.

> > Common defense was already agreed anyhow.

> Where and how?

NATO presumably

NATO, but also more importantly SAFE 2026.

Canada gets significantly better deal than any other non-EU country.

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