Israel Matzav

Willful sacrifice?

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.

The German weekly Der Spiegel reports Saturday on a claim by Professor Arnd Kruger that the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games knew that an attempt was going to be made on their lives and that nevertheless they decided not to leave the Olympic village.

"I was a journalist in Munich back then," he said, "and I remember Israelis telling me they think security at the Olympic Village is not tight enough. We must voice the possibility that the Israeli team chose not to leave despite being well aware of the risk, and we must consider the possibility that some of them did not run away when the terrorists came in because of the self-sacrifice ideal of the Israeli ethos."

"How is it possible," he added, "that Shaul Ladany [who was a racewalker] managed to escape and others didn't? He was neither a sprinter nor a long jumper, and was visually impaired."

Lest any of you think that Kruger admires Israelis, consider his next statement.

Kruger said he had sought to bolster his claims with sociological explanations. He said Israelis have a "different perception of the body," and that the abortion rate in Israel is relatively high.

That's how Haaretz has it. But a translation of the original web page from Der Spiegel shows that what Kruger actually said was even worse.

Kruger joined its martyrs and unfounded theories with a reference to the different body understanding "in Israel and other industrialized nations: Israel trying about living with disabilities with all available means to prevent". Zudem sei die Abtreibungsrate in Israel höher als in anderen westlichen Ländern. Furthermore, the abortion rate in Israel is higher than in other Western countries.

Kruger is an expert on the Nazi Olympics of 1936. I'm waiting to hear about his other connections with the Nazis.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:19 PM