Comment by tptacek
Israel's neighbors are all invited to the Eurovision, and decline to participate because Israel is involved.
Israel's neighbors are all invited to the Eurovision, and decline to participate because Israel is involved.
Lebanon’s objection is specifically due to Israel’s participation, according to Wikipedia:
> Lebanon has never participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. The country's broadcasting organisation, Télé Liban, was set to make the country's debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud, but withdrew due to Lebanese laws barring the broadcast of Israeli content.
According to what _Bentley_ posted it sounds as though there is a moral signal: some states that object to Israel consider it to be beneath their standards to participate in the Eurovision. This implies that those that do participate have no problem with what Israel does. That includes the Australians and the others mentioned earlier by _alphanerd_. Otherwise they too could just not participate.
In a comment by _alphanerd_ in this subthread he points out that problematic states such as Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Australia are in the Eurovision.
Maybe Israel's neighbors object to that?
Or maybe they can't find bad enough musicians to get an entry together and are afraid of losing?