The Lebanese Olympic judo team demanded and got the Olympic committee to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony.
The two teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team refused and their team’s coach demanded an apartheid wall to separate them from the Jews.
Of course the IOC complied with this racism rather than give Lebanon an ultimatum to abide by the Olympic Charter, curb their behavior or pack for the trip home.
I guarantee you that's exactly what would have happened if the Israelis had made that kind of demand.
What an absolute disgrace.
1 comment:
I think you are spot on. Had the Israeli team behaved in a similar way they would have been told to pack for the trip home. I think there are three primary facotors at work. 1.)Israel is considered to be a "Western" nation. As such, we generally expect "Western" nations to behave better than non "Western" nations. A bit off topic but a good example of this is Iraq. The Americans are blamed for the sectarian killings by varoious eliet talking head pundits and policy makers. Its as though the Iraqis have no responsibilty for their behaviour and are not expected to be able to control their own impulses. This is actually a form of racism. It assumes a certain group is incapable of civilized standards of behavior. Arabs should be expected to behave in a civilized manner and not treated like children. 2.)Arabs have the ability through the use of terrorist proxies to attack European nations at any time and any where. They possess the ability to kill untold millions of Britons and Western Europeans. The Israelis do not have the ability to deliver even the military equivelant of a pin prick against Western Europe. 3.)Arabs can cripple the economies of Western Europe and Britain through halting of oil importants and the use of terrorist proxies to disrupt trade routes. The Israelis do not have the ability to do this. If trade with Israel disappeared right now, it would have only a neglible impact on Britain and Western Europe.
While NONE of this is excusable, at least reasons 2 and 3 are understandable from the perspective of Europe. What can Israel do here? The new gas and oil finds in Israel have huge potential to alter the economie equation. (Reason 2). Israel can develop the military and intellegence infrastructure to project power outside of their basic region. I think they are making strides in this area.
To think most Western Europeans are so misinformed as to think Israel is a greater threat to world peace then Middle Eastern Arabs!! Not sure how to address this other than to do a better job of getting a coherent message out. In fact, America needs to better in this area as well.
Post a Comment