In the weeks and months prior to the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, the organizers and the International Olympics Committee were adamant in insisting that there was no time during the event for a single moment of silence for the victims of the 1972 Munich massacre. The 40th anniversary of the terrorist violence that disrupted the sports extravaganza went unmarked during the worldwide television show except for the courageous decision of American broadcaster Bob Costas, who silenced his microphone for five seconds in honor of the Munich victims. But as it turned out, those who produced the opening ceremonies were not opposed to commemorating the victims of terrorist violence, just to remembering Israeli victims. The official program included a nearly six-minute long choreographed commemoration of the July 7, 2005 London bombings.
The excuse for this is that the terrorist assault on London by four Islamist bombers took place 24 hours after the announcement that London would be the host of the 2012 Olympics and is thus associated in the minds of the British with the Games. Fair enough. Those attacks that took the lives of 52 people deserve to be remembered, as do those of other terrorist attacks by Islamists around the globe. But the juxtaposition of the tribute to those victims with the absolute refusal of the organizers to devote a moment to the memory of an event that is far more closely tied to the Olympics was both shocking and indecent. While there were those who speculated that prejudice against Jews and Israelis was at the heart of the IOC’s decision prior to Friday, the surprising inclusion of the 7/7 attacks as a major element in the ceremony confirms that this was the case. The only possible conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Olympic movement considers Jewish blood shed by terrorists at an Olympics to be somehow less significant than that of other victims.
It is therefore somewhat ironic that the main controversy about the opening ceremonies in the world press is not the omission of Munich but the fact that NBC, which broadcasts the Olympics in the United States, chose to cut away from the ceremony (as it does customarily throughout an entertainment spectacle that lasted several hours) during the 7/7 bombing tribute to show something else. In fairness to the organizers, we’re not sure that an interview with swimmer Michael Phelps was worth the time. But the exclusion of Munich from the official program renders NBC’s curious editing a minor issue. Those who have expressed outrage at NBC’s decision while being apathetic about or in agreement with the exclusion of any memory of Munich are hypocrites.
When Ankie Spitzer, the widow of one of the Munich victims and a driving force behind the effort to ask for a moment of silence at the Olympics, met this week with IOC head Jacques Rogge, she asked him if the reason he could not give up one moment from his precious TV show was that those who died 40 years ago were Israelis. He did not answer. But we now know that was the case. The minutes given to the London bombing gives the lie to the excuse given by the group that a commemoration of Munich would have been a political intrusion and therefore inappropriate for a joyous Olympics ceremony. For the Olympic Committee, like the United Nations and the rest of an international community, there are always different rules for Jews. And chief of those rules is that Jewish blood is cheap.
The problem is that it’s habitual for certain circles to use this sort of thing as lachrymose propaganda for worse crimes. Include the children of Gaza, burned with white phosphorus? The Palestinians being dispossessed, even today?
I thought not.
Posting this miserable Nazi’s comment is a disgrace. If prayers ever mean anything, it is mine that he rot in Hell in pain forever.
Grumpy, is there a lie about Israel or about Jews that is so vile and so often refuted that you would refuse to repeat it? Apparently the lie you repeated about children of Gaza being burned with white phosphorus is not one of them.
Note that during the Opening ceremonies of the International Olympic Games in London, the Parade of Nations included the non-nation of "Palestine." The IOC is filled with haters of Jews and of Israel, the land of the Jews. They do not know that the name "Palestine" always meant "land of the Jews" and "Palestinian" meant "Jew," from the time that the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of Judea to "Palestina" in 135 A.D., after having defeated the last Jewish Rebellion under Bar Kochba. (Hadrian wanted to eradicate all member of the Jews and Judea; he outlawed Judaism and renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina," "Aelius" being his gens name.) Great Britain was awarded the "Palestine Mandate" after World War I, to be the homeland of the Jews. n (Calling Arabs "Palestinians" is the consequence of the invention of the "Palestine Liberation Organization" (P.L.O.) by Gamel Nasser, ruler of Egypt, and the Soviet Union, haters of Jews, in Cairo in 1964.)
Did anyone notice the Palestnian athlete holding up his scarf w/handwritten notes at both ends? Wonder what the Arabic said?
Tobin's is a compelling post, and his reasoning from the inclusion in the opening ceremony of the commemoration of the London bombing to the heightened egregiousness of the exclusion of commemorating the Israeli athletes as like subjects of categorically similar terror is impeccable. n nDoubtless this exclusion springs from a mix of motives–anti Israeli sentiment, pro Palestinian sympathy, a wierd, skewed and bizarre sense of political and diplomatic correctness. n nBut the real dirty (not so) secret is that all these reasons add up to, represent, are comprised by (pick your verb) anti Semitism. n nToo bad there are only a few voices willing to say so. And it would be finding a needle in the proverbial haystack to find any prominent mainstream or liberal media figure to say so. n nHas there been one? I haven't heard of anyone. n
"The only possible conclusion to be drawn from this is that the Olympic movement considers Jewish blood shed by terrorists at an Olympics to be somehow less significant than that of other victims." n nYou'd ask for your own eulogy at other people's funerals, you navel-gazing saddo!
"The true nature of the Olympics has come out within the first two days. The Lebanese refused to train next to the Israeli team. The Olympics Committee nquickly capitulated – and put up screens lest the Lebanese be forced to continue seeing the Israeli team." n"It could have been a moment for all victims of terror; it could have been. It should have been. But it wasn't. n nAnd according to the son of one of the Israeli victims, the International Olympic Committee had the nerve to tell the Israeli families that if they were to give a moment to the Israeli dead, they would have to likewise give a moment to the Palestinians who died at the Olympics games – to be fair of course. n nOf course, the only Palestinians who died at the Olympics games were the terrorists themselves. Can you imagine the utter stupidity of that suggestion? But what becomes crystal clear, day after day, humiliation after humiliation, is that the Olympics are NOT about the brotherhood of man and the unity of nations. It is very much about politics and division and so very much about building barriers between nations. [More] n n
From the same link: "Brotherhood of man? Not even close. I pity the British people for having spent a reported billion dollars to be remembered for having hosted the nGames of Hatred. All the gold medals in the world do not cover the ugliness that is being allowed, even supported by the Olympics Committee." nSilence would have been bad enough, Richard. To your everlasting shame, you have added your voice to the Jew haters' voices, and attacked those who pointed the ugliness out for what it is. n n
Sure, it is quite obvious that the position of The IOC is the same as The Arab League, except they cannot say that, can they, at least, NOT YET. My guess is that they are well beyond the recognition of The State of Palestine, but; whoever believes THe IOC was contemplating devoting a minute of silence for Munich are way off;they are prepared to recind Israel’s membership, if at all possible. Right now it is just a dream, but not an impossible dream. One day The IOC may reverse itself, the dream goes on, reverse itself and hand out Cadbury and openly celebrate Munich in the one city where the dream lives,sooty snooty london, a shit hole. That is what I perceive.
When will we ever learn. Don’t waste any more time trying to appease these vermin.
I will never buy any sort of BLOODY Brit Shit.
Why don’t you blokes go brush your rotten teeth. See you in the cardiac ward. The first thing we will do is pull out every one of those stinking putrid teeth of yours, grumps, then the fun starts, ever been on a heart lung machine, well you ‘re going to.
Ein Cock of zay, grumps.
Current course and speed the next Winter Olympics will automatically award every gold medal to the "Palestinians" before the games start and whether or not they even field a team.
like getting a Nobel Peace Prize before doing anything….. n
And in the spirit of keeping the opening non-political, the Brits included a memorial to the victims of the 2005 terror bombing in London. Fair enough, but then don't expect us to believe that the decision not to memorialize the Olympic athletes who were murdered at the Olympics was made on neutral grounds. Or to put it another way, when is an Olymic competitor not an Olympic competitor — when he or she is a Jew, or from Israel, or both
The article and comments section is absolutely hilarious. I'm still not entirely sure it's not meant to be satirical, but if not, deary me some people here are pathetic. The victim mentality on display here is repugnant, frankly. There was no excuse necessarily for the absence of a tribute to victims of a 40 year old tragedy, because there was no obligation to begin with. The games are in London, terrorists attacked London hours after it was announced, it makes perfect sense that these people would be honoured without delving into history and honouring other victims. Get some perspective for crying out loud, not everything that doesn't go the way Israelis would like it to is the result of anti-Semitism you know.
Have the Olympics started? n n
For shame to all the world that stand with their hands in their pockets and eyes diverted who refuse to stand up to those in media, government or elsewhere that slight others in public. This world has enough hate. Time for the citizens of the world to remove those people that promote the hate from their positions or just boycott them, their products or their country. n
If we had any idea how many events on this world stage could be altered by giving the deceased a good excuse to put in a good word for the rest of us still alive here we would certainly have one full moment of silence at some point in time during the ceremonies! Our most educated have an astonishing lack of comprehension of the almost obvious implications of The Anthropic Principle, String Theory, The Cyclic Model of the Universe not to mention the Law of Probability!