The Olympics are due to start in London. But I will not be watching them, discussing them or even thinking about them, and I urge anyone with a claim to human decency to do the same.
In 1972, at the Olympics in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by PLO terrorists. The games, of course, went on, and there has never been any effort to memorialize the victims.
On this, the 40th anniversary of this barbarism, the families of the victims, led by Munich widow Ankie Spitzer petitioned the International Olympic Committee to honor the memory of the murdered athletes with a minute of silence, something most western countries were in favor of:
Munich widow Ankie Spitzer spearheaded the campaign by launching an online protest, which has since garnered support from across political spectrums in several countries including Israel, Canada, the UK, Australia, the US, Belgium and Germany.
In the latest development, some 140 Italian parliamentarians signed a letter to [IOC president] Rogge this week, calling for minute’s silence to be instituted.
The appeal was driven by Italian Jewish MP Fianna Nirenstein, who is vice president of the parliamentary commission on foreign affairs, and who said the gesture would mark “a moment of pity for these murdered athletes and a firm condemnation of terror”.
In a letter launching her campaign for an official silence to mark the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacres, Spitzer wrote:
“Silence is a fitting tribute for athletes who lost their lives on the Olympic stage. Silence contains no statements, assumptions or beliefs and requires no understanding of language to interpret.”
The Olympic Committee refused. And the reason is illuminating.
According to Mrs. Spitzer, Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC told her when they met that 'his hands were tied' by the 46 Arab and Muslim members of the IOC.
She replied, “My husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”
The BBC,of all places, lends credence to this by mentioning as a genteel aside that the Arab and Muslim members threatened a walk out if the Israeli athletes were memorialized.
Yes, as if you didn't know it before, a substantial number of Muslim are just fine with terrorism, barbarism and murder if the targets are Jews. In Britain itself, the first move by the Muslim Council of Britain after it was formed in 2001 was to call for a ban on the UK's Holocaust Memorial Day. And British schools are now routinely banning teaching anything about the Holocaust for fear of 'contradicting versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship.'
The IOC obviously concurs with this sort of pandering. And it easily meets Natan Sharansky's 3D test of anti-semitism.
So I'll be boycotting the Olympics this year, in thought, word, and deed and I urge you to do likewise. I won't watch the coverage, buy any of the merchandise or follow the games in any way.
They are unworthy of attention by anyone who still values what the Olympic spirit is supposedly about.
The one thing I will be doing is letting the suits at NBC and any company advertising themselves as Olympic sponsors know why.
That will be my moment of silence, my tribute. Call it one man's call for simple decency.
I hope you'll join me.
9 comments:
Disagree with you on this one. Israel isn't even boycotting the Olympics. It's also not the fault of the athletes who spend thousands upon thousands of hours,giving up every other aspect of their lives, preparing for this event.
I will be watching the Olympics and cheering on team USA and team Israel.
BTW removing yourself voluntarily from world events gives into the BDS movement. Why give them an victory?
Hello IP,
I never suggested that Israel boycott the Olympics, for the very reason you mention.No sense4 making the Olympics judenrein, which is exactly what the Muslims want.
But I urge people not to empower a racist and anti-semitic organization by watching the Olympics on television, giving them publicity or buying the trinkets they market.
And further, I encourage people to e-mail the networks and advertisers and let them know why.
Regards,
Rob
I agree with you 100% . F**k the Olympics.
Funny, "my hands are tied" is an English idiom while both Rogge (Belgian) and Spitzer (Israeli correspondent for Belgian and Dutch TV) are dutch speaking and know each other on a personal level. I guess the Holocaust is almost all milked out, now we need new sob stories and blame the muslims. All you suckers here hate muslims like Germans hated the jews in the 1930s and 40s. That's why you can't think critically.
Rob-
I think at times we owe our athletes some attention. As I said earlier, they spend their entire lives for this moment and being able to support them in some small way is important.
The companies have already paid for the Olympic game TV advertisements and there is nothing we can do about that. We don't have to buy the trinkets or spend money on activities surrounding the Olympics, but the OIC has already made its TV money.
Email campaigns, and an international movement to educate about the inherent antisemitism in the IOC is important. But why deprive yourself of the beauty that is the indiviudal acts of athleticism and why not support our country's and Israel's athletes..its not their fault.
Sorry, I think this is a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
We're part of an independent initiative of students from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., joined with Ankie Spitzer and JCC Rockland to campaign for a minute of silence in memory of the Munich Eleven. Please visit our website and contribute to the discussion; we want to get as much dialogue going about this cause as possible!
http://munichinitiative.org/discussion/
Sometimes you have to take a stand, and sometimes it's painful and unpleasant. I think this is one of those times.
Total agreement to boycott the Olympics. If watching athletics is more important than honoring and remembering athletes who died, I will choose to not watch. I will let the advertisers know that they will be losing at least some of their audience because of the cowardice of the olympic committee.
On another note, it is very telling that muslim countries threatened to walk from the games if their was a moment of silence for the murdered Israelis. It shows that muslims support the killing of Israelis. And yet they claim they want peace. Hypocrites.
To anonymous...
No sir, we are dealing with remembrance. See, if push comes to shove, I would appreciate if the very people calling for these new embarrassing changes would kindly ask the world Muslim population to forget remembering Prophet Mohammed (3 to 5 times a day for the past 1,400 years) and the Christian population to stop remembering Lord Jesus (once a week for the past 1,700 years). I think we will find some fair leverage there.
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