Israel Matzav

Hezbullah claims basketball players are spies

Hezbullah is claiming that eight basketball players, who formerly played in Israel, must be Israeli spies.

Hezbollah's mouthpiece Al-Manar TV aired a report criticizing Lebanese authorities for allowing eight foreign basketball players who had previously played in Israel to play for teams in Lebanon. One of the players, Sam Hoskin, plays for Lebanon's national team. Hoskin, an American, previously played for Israeli basketball club Hapoel Galil-Elyon.

Abd el-Malek Sachriya, who heads an organization promoting legislation aimed at boycotting Israel, told Al-Manar's website that Lebanese authorities are responsible for the "scandal" in which Hoskin was allowed to become a citizen of the Arab country.

I guess Hoskin isn't a 'Palestinian.' If he was, he could not become a citizen of Lebanon.

He said Lebanon was "half-asleep" and wondered "how can it be that eight players who have played in the Zionist entity come to play in Lebanon - and one of them is even granted citizenship – without anyone knowing who they really are?"

Sachriya said he would meet the Lebanese sports minister next week to discuss the matter. "Any player who entered the Zionist entity and came to Lebanon must be expelled immediately," he said.

"Players who came from Israel may have been recruited by Mossad – this is a danger to national security," Sachriya continued. "As we know, the enemy uses all the means at its disposal to achieve its goals and harm the Lebanese resistance."

From reading the list of players at the end of the article, it seems that at least some of them are over the hill. Of course, Lebanese teams will never play Israeli teams, so we will never find out how they compare. They sound paranoid to me.

Labels: Hezbullah, spying

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:54 AM