Robbie Williams arrived in Israel this week to headline Tel Aviv’s Summer in the City festival. The singer, who has performed there many times, spoke eloquently at a press conference about the difference between the Israel portrayed by detractors and the real country, criticising the “nefarious purposes” of the boycotters.

With the likes of Roger Waters spreading their poison so frequently, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of believing their propaganda, that support for a cultural boycott of Israel is growing.

In fact, the opposite is true: a campaign that has never been more than marginal is becoming steadily even less successful. As we reported last week, later this month, David Draiman and his band Disturbed will perform in Tel Aviv, a city which is a fixed point in the tours of most major entertainers.

Indeed, even when the BDS lobby proclaims a supporter, it often turns out to be nonsense. This week, for example, the singer Sam Smith’s Tel Aviv concert was cancelled. Cue praise from the BDS crowd; but it soon emerged that it was the Israeli promoter who cancelled the show, for reasons that had nothing to do with BDS.

As Israel’s third place in the Eurovision Song Contest showed, for the vast majority of people — who are not anti-Israel obsessives — Israel is just another country, albeit a beautiful and welcoming one.