I am astonished, and vaguely disgusted, to find myself in praise of Ha'aretz.Given the prominence of anti-Zionist Jewish journalists on the payroll, such as Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, it is not very often that I drop into that little neck of the universe.
Nonetheless!
There it was.
A pro-Israel / pro-Jewish article in Ha'aretz - of all places - discussing anti-Jewish Arab racism in the Olympics.
As anyone who follows the Long Arab War Against the Jews knows, the basis of the conflict is centuries' long, Koranically-based Arab-Muslim contempt for the Jewish people.
And just a little bit of that contempt was expressed by Egyptian judoka, Islam el-Shehaby, when he refused to shake the hand of the victor in his match, Israeli-Jewish judoka, Or Sasson, or even bow to him at the beginning of the match.
Here it is:
Writing in Ha'aretz, David Rosenberg tells us:
For the IOC, Shehaby's bad behavior was “contrary to the rules of fair play and against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic Values,” but nothing more. For the media, the affair was another instance of Middle East tensions boiling over into the Olympics, like the Lebanese team refusing to let Israeli athletes board the same bus, and unconfirmed reports that Saudi judoka Joud Fahmy forfeited a match to avoid fighting an Israeli in the next round...
a search of Olympic snubs comes up with zero incidents apart from Arabs dissing Israelis...
There are no cases of Israelis dissing Arabs, and none of Yemenis insulting the Saudis who are bombing their country. There are no protests against the Syrians who are, with the help of their Arab brothers, slaughtering each other. Nor are there incidents between Iran or Russia, who are both playing a key role in the Syrian bloodbath, with anyone in the Arab world.The Egyptians, the Lebanese, and probably the Saudi athlete, as well.
People seem to believe that the grounding of the conflict between Arabs and Jews (or is it Muslims and Jews?) is due to Jewish misbehavior toward Arabs within, and around, Israel.
This is false.
A single honest glance of the history of the Jewish minority under thirteen centuries of Arab-Muslim imperial rule in the Middle East would automatically rule out such a conclusion by any fair interlocutor.
