On Saturday night, Ofer Shalom, Israel Broadcast Authority vote presenter for the Eurovision, made it sound as if his country was leaving the European song competition. But that’s not true – only Ofer Shalom is leaving.
On occasion, Israeli members of the media lose all sense of proportion, most frequently when it comes to their personal concerns. Over the past few weeks, as the IBA’s low-ratings public TV and its more popular radio channels have been slated for foreclosure, to be replaced by (obviously) an even worse service, Israelis have had to endure hours of self-pitying monologues by public media employees, most of whom had already landed jobs with the new broadcast authority. Amazingly, the same broadcasters who had provided their vigorous support the uprooting of some 8,000 Israeli Jews from the Gaza Strip, just couldn’t stop whining about hitting the unemployment lines.
All of which reached its revolting peak Saturday night with Ofer Shalom’s announcement – let’s see what the UK’s Express took away from it:
Headline: “Eurovision: Viewers left STUNNED as Israel announces it will no longer compete in contest.”
Sub headline: “ISRAEL has announced it will no longer take part in the Eurovision song contest after this year.”
There was also the Mirror’s Israel QUITS Eurovision Song Contest live on air after taking part for 44 years, and Metro’s Israel announces Eurovision 2017 will be its final contest in the wake of its TV channel closing.
Several additional news outlets fell for the same self-indulgent stunt. Here is what Ofer Shalom said, try to figure out why everyone was sure Israel was quitting: “This is IBA Channel One calling from Jerusalem. For the past 44 years Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest winning three times. But tonight is our final night. Tonight IBA will shut down our broadcasting for ever. So on behalf IBA let me say thank you Europe for all the magical moments and beautiful years…and hopefully we shall meet again in the future.”
Proving once again that a fool with a microphone can destroy worlds.
We looked up the antonyms for professionalism. They are: inexperience, ignorance, greenness. We would add spoiled brats, narcissistic amateurs, overpaid, untalented hacks.
Salvador Sobral of Portugal won the 2017 Eurovision song contest in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, with a jazz-style ballad written by his sister.
Israel’s “I Feel Alive” sung by Imri Ziv came 23rd out of 26 contestants. Spain was last.