Singer Achinoam Nini, Israel’s representative in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, “asked if she could bring along her current artistic collaborator, an Israeli Arab singer, Mira Awad. … But coinciding as it did with Israel’s Gaza war and the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, the ultranationalist politician who threatens Israeli Arabs with a loyalty oath,” the decision to allow the duo “was labeled by many on the left and in the Arab community as an effort to prettify an ugly situation.”