Not ready for Euro primetime

In an old post about the Eurovision song contest, we noted its ability, despite its pop culture trashiness, to reflect contemporary geopolitical issues. Consider the contest's pronounced eastward shift in the last few years, with this year's contest (determined by last year's winner) being held in Kiev. This synergy with Dubya-style people power being so perfect, we wonder if Dubya will offer to show up to the contest himself.

But in the ever expanding pools of entering countries, a sign that people power is not yet bringing peace and goodwill to the Middle East. Israel is an entrant of long standing in the contest; their entry from quite a few years back is still stuck in our head even though we can't remember whether Milk and Honey was the name of the band or the song. And there's a certain logic to Israel entering European competitions for everything, as in football, because of the de jure and de facto Arab boycotts.

So for some reason, it was decided that Lebanon would enter this year, a decision that predates the March of Babes in Beirut. But, perhaps confused by the 'Euro' prefix, no-one seems to have thought through what it would mean to have Lebanon and Israel in the same regional competition. So today:

Lebanon has withdrawn from this year's Eurovision Song Contest, after refusing to show the Israeli entry on Lebanese TV channel Tele-liban.
The channel told the European Broadcasting Union that Lebanon's legislation made it nearly impossible to broadcast the Israeli performance.

While one might argue that from a Eurotrash avoidance perspective, the Lebanese are better off staying out, it's another demonstration of how, as in football, Israel is probably a net gainer from the Arab boycott.