THE Eurovision Song Contest, notorious for the banality of its entries, is facing a dilemma over a hard-hitting lyric that threatens a diplomatic incident.

Organisers of the contest will this week discuss whether to ban the song entered by Israel because it appears to be a stealth attack on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Officials suspect that the Israeli song, entitled Push the Button, is in material breach of the contest’s rules forbidding political content.

The song, performed by a popular punk-influenced group called Teapacks, has lyrics that seem to refer to the threat by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to “wipe Israel off the map”. The song includes the lines: “The world is full of terror/If someone makes an error/He’s gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come.”

Other lines hopeful of Eurovision immortality are: “I don’t want to die/I want to see the flowers bloom/Don’t want to go kapoot-kaboom . . . he’s gonna push the button.”

Kobi Oz, the group’s singer, has not revealed whose finger is “gonna push the button”, but Iran is the obvious suspect. Ahmadinejad last week denounced Zionists as the “true incarnation of Satan”.

A regional conflict exacerbated by the Eurovision spectacular would get “nul points” from the wider world, so the organisers are unwilling to take any chances.

“I understand this song is clearly political and the Eurovision Song Contest reference group will have to consider what action is taken,” said Heikki Seppala, executive producer of Eurovision 2007 at YLE, the Finnish broadcaster. “The future of the Eurovision song contest is in danger if there is politics in the show. It is not what people are looking for. They want good music and entertainment.”

Kjell Ekholm, a member of the eight-member reference group which oversees the contest, said: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a nonpolitical event; it is a very thin line to say what is political and what is not. Every year there are accusations of plagiarism and messages in songs that we have to consider.”

In 2005, the Eurovision organisers blocked an attempt by Ukraine to enter the anthem to the popular Orange Revolution which overturned rigged elections and swept Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency. The Ukraine’s catchy hip-hop tune included the lines: “No to falsifications, No to lies. Yushchenko — yes! This is our President — yes, yes!”

Teapacks are not happy at the prospect of being banned. Oz believes Push the Button should be allowed because it has the backing of ordinary Israelis.

“The song has a line that talks about ‘some crazy leaders’, but we didn’t mention names,” he told the Israeli daily newspaper Maariv.

Yoram Rotem, director of music at Israeli Army Radio, one of the country’s most popular stations, defended the song, saying: “It is about terror and all the mad people in the world who want to make us frightened.”

It is not the first time Israel’s Eurovision entries have courted controversy. In 2000 the Israeli broadcasting authority disowned Ping Pong, its chosen act, after the group unveiled an audacious routine that involved waving Syrian flags and cucumbers. In 1998 its entry was Diva sung by a performer called Dana International, a transsexual. It won.

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