What 'Olympic spirit'?
In 1936, the Olympics were held in Nazi Germany, to Hitler's delight, until Jesse Owens, a black man, walked away with
four gold medals.
In 1972, when 'Palestinian' terrorists
murdered 11 Israeli athletes in Munich, while the hostage drama was being played out and thereafter, IOC Chairman Avery Brundage famously insisted that 'the games must go on.' It took 40 years afterward for the 11 murdered Israelis to even be memorialized at the Games, and even that was in a
side ceremony and
not at the main stadium. For more than 40 years, the IOC has
gone out of its way to cover up what actually happened on September 6, 1972. On Wednesday, there was finally a
proper memorial ceremony for the Munich 11 - 44 years later - albeit not at the opening ceremony where it would have been watched by a huge worldwide audience.
What happened on Friday pales by comparison, but nevertheless shows that the 'Olympic spirit' is as big a fraud as ever. The Lebanese Olympic team prevented members of the Israeli Olympic team from boarding a bus at the Olympic village, because...
well they're Israelis. And it goes without saying that there were no consequences to the Lebanese team.
“I kept on insisting that we board the bus and
said that if the Lebanese did not want to board as well they are
welcome to leave,” Udi Gal, the Israeli sailing team trainer, wrote in a
Facebook post Friday.
“The bus driver opened the door, but this time
the head of the Lebanese delegation blocked the aisle and entrance. The
organizers wanted to avoid an international and physical incident and
sent us away to a different bus.”
So far, no official response on behalf of the
delegations was given regarding the incident. The Olympic organizing
committee has not yet offered any statement about the incident either.
Back home, the head of the Lebanese delegation is being
hailed as a hero.
Saleem a-Haj Nacoula told Lebanese media that
the Israelis were “looking for trouble” as they insisted on boarding the
same bus when they had their own assigned transportation.
“There were more than 250 buses assigned to
transport delegations from the Olympics village to the ceremony. After
we boarded bus number 22, for the Lebanese delegation, I was surprised
to see the Israeli delegation approaching and trying to get on,” Nacoula
said.
“I told the bus driver to close the door but a
trainer who was with the Israelis prevented him from doing so. I had to
physically stand at the door and block him and the rest of the
delegation from boarding, knowing that some were trying to force their
way through and were looking for trouble,” he went on.
Nacoula alleged that the Israeli had their own
bus to take them. “Why did they want to board a bus with the Lebanese
delegation?”
“I stood at the door and told those responsible that we would not let them on the bus with us,” he said.
Members of the Israeli delegation were taken to the opening ceremony on other buses arranged through Olympics organizers.
Back home, Nacoula was praised in the press and on social media as a hero.
Maybe the reason the Israelis were looking to board the bus was that there were too many of them to fit on one bus.
For the 2016 Olympic Games, which officially opened on Friday, Israel
proudly showed off its largest delegation ever, with 47 athletes
competing in 17 categories. Israel’s delegation also includes 34 coaches
and about 25 support staff.
The Lebanese delegation consists of 9 athletes, and probably far fewer coaches and support staff than the Israelis have. The Lebanese did not need their own bus. This was nothing but pettiness (and worse). But it will go unpunished. Because the 'Olympic spirit' is a fraud.
Labels: International Olympic Committee, Israel, Lebanon, Munich Olympic massacre, Olympic spirit, Rio Olympics, Summer Olympics
IOC says no commemorating athletes who died
Torah Bright is an Australian snowboarder who wanted to wear a sticker on her helmet honoring Sarah Burke, her friend who was
killed in an accident two years ago. The International Olympic Committee
said no, as you can see from Bright's posting above.
But the International Olympic Committee denied Bright's request based on
the strict bylaws related to equipment in the Olympic charter
prohibiting any "form of publicity or propaganda, commercial or
otherwise" except for the name of the manufacturer.
On Feb. 7, Bright posted the following on Facebook and Instagram: "I
ride with a Sarah sticker on my snowboard and helmet always. The IOC
however, consider Sarah stickers "a political statement" and have banned
them. WOW. Sarah is a beautiful, talented, powerful women, who's spirit
inspires me still. She is a big reason why skier pipe/slope are now
Olympic events."
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the organization
has "huge sympathy" for friends of athletes who died performing their
craft but that the organization doesn't consider it appropriate to
acknowledge it within the competition.
"Absolutely we want to help
the athletes to remember her in some way, so there's all sorts of
things we can do," Adams said. "For example, we can help them if they
want to have a press conference in various places we can organize
something individually or collectively. We really feel that and think
she's an important person to be remembered.
"From our side we'd
say the competitions themselves, which are a place of celebration, are
not the right place in our opinion to really do that and we kind of like
to keep that separate but we absolutely will support any kind of
remembrance the athletes want to do."
Of course. Commercialization (by having brand names on your equipment), yes. 'Politics' (since when is an athlete killed in a skiing accident 'politics'?), no.
Oh wait. Of course. It's not hard to figure out why the IOC said no to Torah Bright (aside from her name). If they allowed her to commemorate Burke, someone might want to commemorate those pesky 11 Israelis who were murdered at the 1972 Munich games....
Labels: International Olympic Committee, Munich Olympic massacre, Winter Olympics
Murdered Israeli athletes remembered... but not by the IOC
In a ceremony by Russian Jewry and the Israeli Olympic team, the members of the 1972 Olympic team who were murdered in Munich were remembered in Sochi. Unfortunately, once again,
the International Olympic Committee was not there.
Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar said the memorial was meant to connect and embolden the Jewish diaspora.
"So
when you think of the history of Israeli athletes going to different
Olympics, mentioning the Munich '72 massacre, is...always tell us you
know being Jewish sometimes is not as comfortable as you would like it
to be. But it really depends on us to move forward, not be ashamed and
then the people around us are going to understand that we are here to
stay and we are open about it," Lazar said.
Andrea Davidovich, a US-born Israeli figure skater, said she felt close to the 1972 athletes.
"I
feel like we are representing them and what they couldn't achieve
because of people who are against us, and we have to all be together the
way were were greeted today and stand behind each other, because we're
Jewish and we are all a part of this community and have to support each
other," Davidovich said.
Widows of two of the athletes who were
killed have long campaigned for the 1972 victims to be remembered at
Olympic opening ceremonies.
...
An International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman said the IOC
remembered the victims in other official ways - with services and by the
statues in Munich commemorating the tragedy.
Yes, of course, the Games must go on. Spit....
Labels: International Olympic Committee, Munich Olympic massacre
It figures: New International Olympic Committee chief heads group that helps comply with Arab boycott of Israel
Given the
Nazi history of the International Olympic Committee, no one should be surprised that the Committee's new chairman also chairs a German-based organization that helps companies to guarantee that
their products do not contain anything from Israel. Note: Not 'just' from the 'territories,' which would be noxious enough, but
from Israel.
Thomas Bach, a German who was elected Tuesday at an IOC session in
Buenos Aires, is chairman of Ghorfa, the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, which was set up in the 1970s by Arab countries to
boycott trade with Israel.
“It betrays the principles of sportsmanship and fair play for the IOC
to be headed by someone who actively participates in ongoing Israel
boycott campaign measures,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American
Jewish Committee Berlin Ramer Institute.
Ghorfa helps German
companies ensure that products meet the import requirements of Arab
governments, some of which ban products and services from Israel.
The
group continues to issue certificates of German origin for trade with
Arab countries. Its earlier practice of certificates verifying that no
product parts were produced in Israel stopped in the early 1990s when
Germany enacted trade regulations forbidding the use of certificates of
origin to enable de facto trade boycotts, according to the AJC.
Part of the problem is that we Jews are too polite to call someone an anti-Semite. Recall, for example,
Alex Giladi.
Or look at the reaction of
Germany's Jewish community to Bach's appointment.
Bach’s candidacy came under criticism in Germany in past weeks for its
strong support by Arab leaders. But Charlotte Knobloch, president of the
Jewish Community of Bavaria and former head of the Central Council of
Jews in Germany, said in a statement that Bach “stands for central
values such as tolerance, fairness — sportsmanship in the best sense of
the word — and cosmopolitanism.”
Useful idiot.
Labels: anti-Semitism, Arab boycott of Israel, International Olympic Committee, Munich Olympic massacre, Nazis
