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Yuval Raphael Meets With Israeli President Herzog Before Departing for 2025 Eurovision Song Contest
Yuval Raphael at President’s Residence in Jerusalem meeting with President Isaac and First Lady Michal Herzog. Photo: Ma’ayan Toaf (GPO)
Singer Yuval Raphael, Israel’s representative in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, met with Israeli President Isaac and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Monday shortly before traveling to Basel, Switzerland, to compete in the international singing competition.
The Ra’anana native – who is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023 – will compete in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “New Day Will Rise,” a ballad written by singer and songwriter Keren Peles. The song is mostly in English but features some French and Hebrew lyrics as well.
Raphael will participate in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be broadcast on May 15, and, if she advances, will compete in the grand final on May 18. She won season 11 of the Israeli television show “HaKokhav HaBa,” (“The Next Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision contest.
Before leaving for Switzerland, Raphael talked to President Herzog about her mindset going into the competition. “On the one hand, I’m arriving and working as someone who wants to win and is doing everything with that goal, but on the other hand, I can’t help but feel that just being there is already a victory, that I have the privilege to do this,” she said, according to the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO).
“We’re coming to win no matter what,” added the singer, who lived in Geneva for three years as a child. “I don’t have time to breathe — we’re working around the clock to deliver the best result possible. It really feels like preparing for the Olympics.”
Herzog gave Raphael words of encouragement, telling her that she has will have Israel’s support throughout the competition.
“We are all with you,” he said. “You have a wonderful personality, your story is incredible, and every time I hear the song, my heart swells with pride. We want so much for you to succeed.”
“When you step on that stage, remember that you will be in the hearts of every Israeli home, of the entire Jewish people in the Diaspora, and especially in the hearts of the pure and grieving families of the Nova tragedy, of that horrific massacre,” he further noted. “We are immensely proud of you and wish you the best of luck in this mission.”
Raphael survived the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in Re’im, Israel, by hiding from Hamas terrorists in a roadside bomb shelter. For several hours, she pretended to be dead and laid under dead bodies until she was rescued. Terrorists killed 370 people and kidnapped 44 civilians during their deadly rampage at the music festival.
Last year’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, Eden Golan, finished fifth place in the competition. She made it to the top five despite being booed on stage by anti-Israel audience members, facing death threats, and having a Eurovision jury member refuse to give her points because of his personal resentment toward Israel’s military actions in the Gaza war. Golan also said she was forced to conceal her identity outside her hotel room in Malmo, Sweden, where the Eurovision was held last year, because of the threats she received from activists furious about Israel’s participation in the contest.
Israel has been competing in the Eurovision since 1973 and won four times — in 1978 with Izhar Cohen’s “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” 1979 with Milk and Honey’s “Hallelujah,” 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva,” and in 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.”
The Eurovision Song Contest is organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Several national broadcasters have criticized the EBU’s decision to let Israel participate in this year’s competition because of the country’s military actions targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. Iceland’s national broadcaster most recently called for Israel to be removed from Eurovision 2025, not long after Slovenia’s broadcaster and Spain’s broadcaster RTVE raised their own issues with Israel competing in the contest this year.
A spokesperson for the EBU told HuffPost UK last week that Israel’s national broadcaster Kan submitted an application to join the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest before the September deadline and “the application met all the competition rules.”
“As an independent media organization, our decisions are based on these rules,” the spokesperson added. “We all aspire to keep the Eurovision Song Contest positive and celebratory and aspire to show the world as it could be, rather than how it necessarily is. The EBU remains aligned with other international organizations that have similarly maintained their inclusive stance towards Israeli participants in major competitions at this time.”
The EBU spokesperson additionally noted that the union acknowledges “the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East.”
“The EBU is an association of public service broadcasters who are all eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest every year,” the spokesperson further noted. “We are not immune to global events but, together, it is our role to ensure the contest remains – at its heart – a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music.”
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
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