ZFA Congratules Prime Minister Scott Morrison

The Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) has offered its congratulations to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Coalition for their re-election following Australia’s Federal Election.

President of the ZFA Jeremy Leibler said “On behalf of the Australian Jewish community, we congratulate Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the re-elected Coalition Government. We look forward to continuing our support of the important work of this Government and furthering the already warm and enduring friendship it shares with the Jewish community and the State of Israel.”

“The Morrison Government not only showed moral leadership in recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and opening a trade office there, but it was also fearless in standing up for Israel on the world stage and calling out bias at the UN. In fact, Australia was the only country on the UN Human Rights Council this year to oppose all anti-Israel resolutions.”

“We also pass on our best wishes to Bill Shorten and thank him for his six-year leadership of the Australian Labor Party. Mr Shorten is a strong friend of the Australian Jewish community and we acknowledge his long-standing commitment and support for the Australia-Israel alliance”.

“The ZFA would also like to wish a special Mazal Tov to Josh Burns who will succeed Michael Danby as the new Member for Macnamara and former Australian Ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma as the new Member for Wentworth. The Jewish community also offers its best wishes and thanks to Dr Kerryn Phelps, the first Jewish Australian woman to be elected to Parliament, for her service and leadership.”

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed his support:

 

***Spoiler Alert*** BDS Fails to Boycott Eurovision! 

2018 Eurovision Winner Netta Barzilai from Israel, hands over her crown to the Netherlands' Duncan Laurence.

An estimated tuned in 200 Million Viewers tuned in to watch the Eurovision Grand Final. This is more than the 187 million viewers last year despite the BDS attempted campaign. Millions of tourists and people from all over the world got to experience the real Israel not shown on TV by showing its rich diversity, culture and showing off everything Tel Aviv has to offer to the world. It is clear their campaign based on the demonisation of Israel failed.

We are very proud of both Israel's and Australia's performers in Eurovision this year despite the winner ultimately going to the Netherlands.

Kobi Marimi, Israel's entrant gave an emotional and raw performance of 'Home' which you can watch here.
It was such a big moment for him personally and what the songs means to him and to sign it in front of his home crowd with Israeli flags waving that he burst into tears.  Kobi finished in 23rd out of 26th place. Had he won, he would have been the fifth Israeli to have won the Eurovision contest which is remarkable in itself.

Following his performance, Kobi said “I couldn’t have asked for more than this. I’ll remember this night forever. I don’t have words to explain how much I love this country, and how proud I am for myself and my team. I’m very happy and grateful to the audience for the applause, and for the flags they brought to the venue. This is a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life”.



Meanwhile, Australia's entrant Kate Miller-Heidke finished in a top 10 photo finish, coming in 9th place.

Watch Kate's iconic and stunning performance of "Zero Gravity" here.

Kate completely blew the crowd away in Tel Aviv with her amazing vocals, staging and performance. Click above to check it out. 

She said representing Australia at Eurovision had been a dream come true, and to place ninth was "beyond belief".

"I love that Eurovision gives artists permission to be unique - and sometimes outright bonkers, in the best possible way," she said after the competition. "I've always been interested in breaking down traditional genre barriers to try and embrace what makes me different as an artist."

We also acknowledge Kate's incredible resilience and ability to call out Twitter extremists since the time she was selected as Australia's performer from the extreme BDS crowd who attempted to bully her and other performers into not going to Israel.

“I’m pretty sure all the artists have been experiencing the same pressures, the same kind of twitter extremism, I’ve spoken with some of the other artists, everyone feels conflicted by it, everyone feels under pressure," the singer told SBS News in Tel Aviv. Since being here (in Israel), I’ve been even more sure about the value of open dialogue,"  - Kate Miller-Hedike.

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