Eurovision won’t change the Middle East, but it has revealed a simple truth: the gap between the public and the judges wasn’t a matter of musical taste – it exposed a crisis of representation.

Sometimes music says what politics dares not express. This was the case at the 2025 Eurovision grand final in Switzerland on Saturday night. Millions of Europeans voted, not for a politician but for a voice. A voice of truth, of pain, and of hope. It was the voice of Yuval Raphael, a 24-year-old Israeli survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre on October 7, who stood alone on a Basel stage and sang a song of life.

The European public understood. They listened. They applauded. They voted. Israel received the highest number of audience points, 297, more than any other country. But that voice – brave, wounded, and clear – was muffled by the jury: only 60 points, placing her 15th in their ranking. Not indifference – near exclusion.

This was not a political performance, it was a rare human moment. Raphael didn’t come to represent a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)