While Polish soccer fans taunt a visiting team from Tel Aviv, and a doctor from Bethlehem joins a flotilla to Free Gaza, Israel is releasing over 1000 of it's avowed enemies to free one soldier. The soldier was abducted in Israel in 2006, and dragged into Gaza, while his two comrades were killed. His abductors will also be released, along with dozens of others, who pride themselves on how many Jews they have killed. In that group is a bomber, who alone blew up 30 Jews. Israelis know that some of these terrorists will return to Israel, and kill more Jews. The Israeli soldier was 19 when captured. He has not been seen since 2009. While the Polish fans jeer, and the doctor rants, the light shines.
photo: Israel attempts to rescue besieged Jews in Jerusalem, 1948
This prisoner exchange, Molovinsky fails to point out, is wildly popular in Israel and championed by the arch-conservative Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
ReplyDeletegary, popular is not the proper word. because all israelis serve in the army, they see schalit as their son and brother. because of this, 79% approve of the swap. it is estimated that 590 israelis were killed by terrorists included in the swap. although you may see it as a political move, it's a light so bright with courage, that it blinds you.
ReplyDeleteI heard an Israeli woman state on the radio yesterday that, although she is, of course, very happy that the young Israeli soldier who has been imprisoned by the rocket-lobbing Palestinians for five years ... she is also deeply, deeply concerned that this swap will set a precedent that is actually very, very dangerous and counterproductive to peace.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this assessment but I also believe GOLDA MEIR, the esteemed former Prime Minister of Israel, could explain it far better than I.
"JIHAD LEGIA"
ReplyDeleteThis was written, in Arabic letters, on a massive banner unfurled in the stadium by Polish team supporters for the Legia Warsaw v FC Hapoel Tel Aviv match no so long ago.
LEGIA WARSAW was founded in 1916 on the Eastern front during World War I as the football club for the so-called "Polish Legions" ... in 1922 the club became the principal club for the Polish Army and remained as such up until the fall of Communism.
Although the club is today a standard professional operation with no official link to the Army, the supporters still identify themselves and the team as an "Army club".
Everyone knows, or ought to, what JIHAD means.
The obvious symbolism here is appalling and blatantly confrontational. The lame explanations from the supporters that this is all very harmless and there is no real link between them and radical, blood-thirsty Islamic killers bent on "Holy War" is unacceptable. The apologies from the club officials, who claim they do not sanction this sort of thing, are sincere, I believe, but not enough.
The Legia Warsaw supporters will be taken to school and given quite the education, Mr. Molovinsky. Their cirriculum will include football, the Holocaust as well as a few hundred or so years of Polish history. Apparently, they have much to learn.
As luck would have it, the my series on German Football At The Olympics continues and, as the regulars already know, it is time for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Poland, the defending champion from the Munich Games who also finished third at both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, met East Germany for the Gold Medal --- and lost.
On a side note, the '76 Games were noteworthy for the appearance of the Israel Olympic team --- determined not to be frightened away from international competition in the wake of the notorious Munich Massacre carried out by murderous Palestinian thugs.
Israel qualified for the final Olympic tournament --- from the Asia region because all the Arab countries conspired to have "the Jews" kicked out of the federation which oversees the Middle East.
1976 marks the last appearance for the Israel national team at a major international football final tournament ... in the late 1970s, Israel were moved by FIFA into the most difficult region to qualify for a tournament from, Europe.
Of course, in the past few years, the national team trainer of Norway (an open and life-long Communist Party member) has openly called for Israel to be tossed out of FIFA entirely and shunned completely the way South Africa used to be, but that is another story.
Ironpigpen: Interesting and enlightening post of the interplay between politics and football.
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