Eurovision and tunnel vision |
As I watched Noam Bettan belt his way to second place in Vienna last week, I thought about the gulf between his real self and the avatar of the invented Israel he represents to some. After a week of lies and libels even more outrageous and numerous than usual, I offer a reality check to those who booed and boycotted him.
Bettan is the 28-year-old son of French immigrants to Israel. Why would French Jews immigrate to Israel? The story of Ilan Halimi may be instructive. In 2006 the 24-year-old Jewish cellphone salesman was abducted by a self-named ‘Gang of Barbarians,’ who believed the antisemitic trope that all Jews are rich. They attempted to extort a ransom from Halimi’s family, who were not rich, so unable to pay. After 24 days his hideously tortured, burned and naked body was dumped in a field. He died on the way to hospital.
This marked the beginning of a Reign of Islamist Terror across France which has included the murder of a teacher and 3 infants at a Jewish school (2012); the rapes of a 19-year-old Jewish girl and her 21-year old boyfriend (2014); the horrific Bataclan and Charlie Hebo massacres, hostage-taking at a kosher supermarket and stabbing of Jewish community centre guards (2015); stabbings and machete attacks on six Jews (2015-6); the murders at home of elderly Jewish women Sarah Halimi and Mireille Knoll (2017-8); stabbing of a Jewish woman (2023) and man (2024); gang rape of a 12-year-old “dirty Jew” girl (2024);........