A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
The Times and Israel's Gold Medal

The obsession of the New York Times with Israel is in full display in today's paper. The front page of the sports section has a long article about windsurfer Gal Fridman's winning of Israel's first gold medal. As if that weren't enough, sports columnist Selena Roberts has a column about Israel and the Olympics, also on the front sports page.

Would any other country get this kind of coverage for winning its first gold medal? Of course not.

That said, I have no complaint about the article or the column. Indeed, the latter is one of the better columns the Times has ever published about Israel. Roberts slammed the International Olympic Committee for refusing to sanction Iran for its judo star's intentional binging after being matched with an Israeli so that he would exceed the weight limit and be disqualified. The I.O.C. concluded that there was no boycott of Israel by Iran, despite the judo star's proclamation that "I refused to fight my Israeli opponent to sympathize with the suffering of the people of Palestine."

Roberts also tweaked at Israel's I.O.C. representative, Alex Gilady, who defended the I.O.C.'s acceptance of Iran's boycott of Israeli participants, despite Olympic regulations barring any such conduct. She wrote:

"[Gilady's] defense of the I.O.C. defied logic. By the I.O.C.'s inaction, Iran has learned it can manufacture an Olympic snub whenever it fears that mixing sweat with an Israeli will result in some sinister cross-pollination."

Gilady told Roberts, "We think sanctions are counterproductive."

Roberts responded in her column: "But so is tolerance of anti-Semitism. While Gilady concedes that the Iranian athlete was a tool of the government, he allows the I.O.C. to hide behind a ruse, keeping in step with the pathetic strategy of silence by the Olympic gods."

Roberts's common sense is appreciated, but it's unfortunate that so many Israelis and diaspora Jews take cowardly positions like Gilady instead of standing up for their country with pride.
posted on 8/26/2004