I’m Not Your Toy (Nix the Joy)!

Israelis – right, center, and left – were enchanted by Netta Barzilai and her performance which led to Israel’s win at the Eurovision Song Contest. But on the left, one registers a great deal of ambivalence, and no small amount of outright hostility, towards Netta’s win (though not towards the singer herself) and towards our collective joy over it. One gets the sense that, in some leftist circles, national joy itself is frowned upon, and that all-hearts-beat-as-one-ism, and fellow feeling itself, are matters of suspicion. We will try to understand why this is, whether it is a good or bad thing, and if it is bad, what is to be done about it.

This is a segment from The “I’m Not Your Toy (But Nix the Joy)!” Edition.