Re: MOROCCO 2014
One crucial question: how do you guys justify presence of:
-Israel
-Cyprus
-Armenia
in the contest?
Not sure what that has to do with Morocco?
But sure, if you want I can say my opinion on it:
- Israel : Has been an active member in this contest since the 1970's, way longer than many other countries. Only based on this alone, it would feel very awkward to suddenly say no to them. Also, Israel is already competing as part of Europe in various other events, mainly in Sport events, so entering ESC then doesn't feel so strange either in the case of Israel when looking at it like that. Geographically it's not that farer away from continental Europe than Cyprus is (that you also mentioned) or parts of Turkey and of course Eastern Russian parts, and politically/socially/culturally it could be considered a European country (afterall about half of its population are European immigrants).
- Cyprus : Well, the island belongs to the European Union (so atleast in the most political sense it's European), and it's practically the same people as Greece (which is a European country/nation). Also here it's been an active country in ESC for decades.
- Armenia : It's true it's not within the European continent, however it's a direct neighbor to continental Europe by land, also it surely belongs more to the European family in terms of culture, socially and politically, than it would belong to their Asian/Muslim neighbor countries. The situation is not like Israel's though, but there are some similarities. While they don't have as long history in ESC as Israel and Cyprus has, they have nevertheless been an active participant since its debut 2006 and in just some years time, this country will celebrate a decade in the contest (which is more than some continental European countries have entered), so they have been actively paying interest to the contest, which I think should at-least be acknowledged.
Now, compare those situations with Morocco, a country that doesn't belong to Europe geographically, nor culturally, socially and politically. They have entered this contest
once, 33 years ago, and has since then not been showing much interest for the contest. Also it's still a question mark whether they would for instance apply to the rules (showing the Israeli participant, allowing TV to show light-dressed women and "gay-ish" behavior).
Now, I've got nothing personally against Morocco, I'm kind of indifferent tbh, and I do acknowledge the attachment to Europe they had historically (as a former colony) and that they are atleast
somewhat a secular state (in comparison to others, although the Muslim Brotherhood influence is strengthening), but I still can't really see them in Eurovision, and imo it has mostly to do with the fact that it's not even partly within the European continent, not even a direct neighbor. Now, I know the EBU rules doesn't care about that, but since you asked for our personal opinions, well there you have mine.
... it depends on what she defines herself as... 
