It is unbelievable that Yuval Raphael even made it as Israel’s Eurovision entrant last night, let alone almost won the entire damn thing.
That she had the fortitude (and luck) to survive the Nova festival massacre by playing dead and hiding under a pile of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter for hours, with shrapnel embedded in her leg, until she was ultimately rescued.
That she had the fortitude to not only get on with her life – having witnessed friends and others slaughtered and kidnapped – but to use this traumatic experience as a motivation for her to follow her dreams and become a professional singer despite previous hesitations.
That she had the fortitude to enter Israeli television talent show HaKokhav HaBa (The Next Star) and perform on national television.
That she uncovered a talent that led to her winning the show and earning the right to represent Israel at Eurovision.
That she had the fortitude to continue, despite protests against her participation, threats, and calls to have her outstered for the crime of being Israeli.
That she had the fortitude to not only continue, but qualify for the finals.
That she had the fortitude to sing as she did, despite Israel-haters attempting to rush the stage as she performed.
And perform she did.
That she had the fortitude to declare Am Yisrael Chai (“the nation of Israel lives”) right after nailing that performance.
Yuval Raphael has clearly won at life, despite not winning Eurovision. And she probably also would have won Eurovision, had the politics of the judges not clearly impacted her relatively low jury score compared to her winning the public vote.*
Yuval Raphael serves as an inspiration for all of us to keep on keeping on, despite the odds seemingly being against us.
*That’s right, Israel won the public vote, indicating it is just a noisy minority causing the problems, and a silent majority who either support Israel or at least do not hate us
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