Israel’s Shiri Maimon has done us proud, placing fourth in the in the Eurovision Song Contest. Of course, I thought she should have won. Her song was easily the most powerful, and she sang it beautifully.
And before you shout out “but they hate us in Europe!”, a look at the scoreboard reveals that she received one of her best scores from France! (Then again, the French singer was actually born in Israel, so the French would have to have suppressed their true feelings). And although I did not watch the whole telecast, I have not heard anything about any calls to not vote for the Israeli entrant this time around.
In any event, advancing to the final, and then placing fourth out of 24 participants in the final, was a great achievement.
Of course, I know some of you won’t accept anything short of victory. So it with great pleasure that I announce to you that Israel actress Hanna Laslo received the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Free Zone (the film which did not make Natalie Portman the most popular girl around the old part of town).
Not a bad result for an actress who is well known in Israel for her role in a pretty awful Israeli soap opera, and to whom others would hand out a very different award.
Mazal tov to both Shiri and Hanna for the great results.
Update: Another great result for Israel as judoka Arik Ze’evi today won the silver medal in the European Championship 100 kg category. The only sour note being that he lost to a Frenchman.
