Benjamin Weinthal has a superb essay about the International Olympic Committee's refusal to permit a minute of silence to honor the eleven Israeli athletes murdered by Muslim terrorists in the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Why Did the IOC Refuse to Honor the Munich Victims?
By Benjamin Weinthal
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) flatly rejected a minute of silence at today’s opening ceremony in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of eleven Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games.
Why exactly is the IOC opposed to a rather modest attempt to commemorate the victims of terror? According to Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing coach Andre Spitzer, who was murdered by the Palestinian Black September group in 1972, IOC president Jacques Rogge capitulated to the 46-member bloc of Arab and Muslim countries because of the threat of Arab countries to boycott participation in the Games.
Spitzer, who jumpstarted an international campaign to garner a minute of silence at the London games, reported that Rogge told her that “his hands were tied” by the influence of the 46-member group.
Her rejoinder to Rogge: “No, my husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”
Spitzer claims that the IOC balked because 21 Arab delegations are prepared to leave the Games if a public commemoration event took place. Her response to the IOC: “Let them leave if they can’t understand what the Olympics are all about — a connection between people through sport.”
Predictably and unsurprisingly, Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Federation, praised Rogge’s decision in a letter, writing “Sports is a bridge for love, connection and relaying peace between peoples. It should not be a factor for separation and spreading racism between peoples.”
Meanwhile, in a case of real ICO-sponsored racism and anti-Semitism, the IOC permitted Lebanon’s Judo team to boycott training alongside the Israeli team. According to the London-based Jewish Chronicle, “Olympic officials were forced to erect a special screen at the Excel venue following a complaint from a member of the Lebanese delegation.”
What is unfolding in London is a mirror-image of the conduct of the United Nations and its organizations seeking to not hurt the” feelings” of Muslim-majority countries. In short, mass cowardice prevails over basic human rights and confronting terrorism.
Moreover, the Obama administration’s ongoing refusal to invite Israel to participate in the U.S.-sponsored Global Counterterrorism Forum is part and parcel of the soggy indifference toward Israel’s security interests, this time at the expense of placating Turkey.
In one of the most insightful commentaries on the failure of left-liberals to tackle pressing human-rights issues, the Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger neatly captured in his May article a new phenomenon. He wrote that “the Liberals and Democrats who work on human-rights issues won’t like to hear this, but with the Obama presidency, human rights has completed its passage away from the political left, across the center and into its home mainly on the right — among neoconservatives and evangelical Christian activists.”
All of this helps to explain why conservatives have played a key role in the call to remember the murdered Israeli athletes and have consistently urged the Obama administration to include Israel in its Global Counterterrorism Forum.
Weinthal is right. Human rights issues-- from the right to life to the right to freedom of speech to the right to be free of coercive population control to the right to religious freedom to the right to be free of government-imposed racism to the right to a fair trial to the right to be free of anti-semitism-- are now causes championed by conservatives and widely opposed by liberals.
The London Olympic Games will run 24,480 minutes. As for the International Olympic Committee's refusal to offer even one minute for a brief tribute to the athletes murdered by Muslim terrorists 40 years ago in Munich, there's no need for an exhaustive analysis.
There's a simple explanation.
The athletes were Jews.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteWell, the Israeli IOC member was opposed to a minute of silence, so he must be anti-Jewish too.
The Lebanese judo team refusing to train with the Israeli team might possibly have more to do with the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure throughout the country, in addition to civilian deaths, rather than due to anti-Jewish sentiment. The invasion was just 6 years rather than 40 years ago.
I laughed at your comment that American conservatives are concerned with the right to life. What about the 12 slaughtered in the Aurora cinema by a deranged gunman who managed to legally arm himself with 4 weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle capable of discharging 50 rounds a minute, and hundreds of bullets, due to America's incredibly lax gun control (if 'control' is the correct word to use)?
Are you going to suggest a minute of silence for the victims of the lax gun control laws you so fervently support?
Also, I'm bemused at American politics. Obama is neither 'left' nor 'liberal'. He's more conservative than many European conservative leaders. He's regarded as being liberal in America, because the political spectrum there is shifted far towards the conservative end. There are very few social democrats in America.
>>I laughed at your comment that American conservatives are concerned with the right to life. What about the 12 slaughtered in the Aurora cinema by a deranged gunman who managed to legally arm himself with 4 weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle capable of discharging 50 rounds a minute, and hundreds of bullets, due to America's incredibly lax gun control (if 'control' is the correct word to use)?<<
DeleteYes, we're concerned with those victims too. Do you think American conservatives cheered when this happened? No, we were in a state of shock and dismay, just like the rest of the country and the world.
We believe in the right to bear arms, not the right to go on killing sprees. Now's the time for you to show us what a good liberal you are and demonstrate some nuanced understanding. The right to bear arms is not the right to do what James Holmes did. Second Amendment advocates are not Holmes' cheerleaders.
>>Are you going to suggest a minute of silence for the victims of the lax gun control laws you so fervently support?<<
I would support a moment of silence of Holmes's victims, if that's what you're asking. Yes. But of course those didn't happen at the Olympics. The murder of the Israeli athletes did.
Moments of silence infuriate atheists, so that probablty won't happen.
JQ
Personally, I can't stand the IOC or the UN.
ReplyDeleteThe games could be salvaged, I suppose.
They could be honed back into a sporting event.
But the UN is defunct and worse. It is a real threat to the life and freedoms of hundreds of millions of souls.
Bach,
"I laughed at your comment that American conservatives are concerned with the right to life."
You laugh at very strange things.
"What about the 12 slaughtered in the Aurora cinema by a deranged gunman who managed to legally arm himself with 4 weapons,"
Oh THAT's the punch line? Hilarious...
Innocent people being slaughtered at a theatre is just such a knee slapper.
[...] including a semiautomatic rifle capable of discharging 50 rounds a minute, and hundreds of bullets, due to America's incredibly lax gun control (if 'control' is the correct word to use)?"
He could have done exactly the same thing here (or there until 1994).
A semi automatic weapon (rifle) is the most common kind - and the easiest to license in countries NOT beholden to the UN policies of global disarmament (IE Sovereign)
An AR 15 is one of the easiest rifles to buy anywhere that is FREE.
It is a 'starter' rifle at the range. Teens learn to shoot on them before moving on to a TAR or M-4, or get into bolt action hunting rifles. They are among the easiest weapons to dissemble and clean - which really says something about this maniac's jamming: He was a complete amateur and new to it all.
"Are you going to suggest a minute of silence for the victims of the lax gun control laws you so fervently support?"
Wait a second!
You just said a 'deranged gunman' killed those people - now you're saying they were LEGALLY murdered? Or killed by 'laws' - and so 'executed'?
As for a minute of silence for the victims, of course I would honour them with a moment of silence. I would also honour the Israeli athletes, but then I am not a blue cap.
"Obama is neither 'left' nor 'liberal'. He's more conservative than many European conservative leaders."
Obama is a globalist/internationalist who has been a social democrat his WHOLE ADULT LIFE.
You compare him to the EU? THAT is laughable.
Of course he looks centralist compared to those Gauleiters.
CrusadeRex,
Delete'I laughed at your comment...'. 'You laugh at very strange things'.
Well, you said it. You've got it exactly right. Laughter is the only rational response to Michael Egnor's increasingly bizarre statements. For once, you've got it right when he state that I laugh at strange things...
Yes, Crusade Rex. "Laws" killed the people in Aurora. That's what bachfiend thinks. Not James Holmes, but the laws that "allowed" him to do it.
DeleteJQ
JQ,
DeleteYou're as mad as CrusadeRex. Inadequate gun control laws share a lot of the blame for the massacre. There's no reason for someone having a semiautomatic rifle for defense. It's a purely offensive weapon. Would the deranged shooter have attempted to do what he did if he'd been only armed with hand guns? Probably not. It's fortunate that his rifle jammed, otherwise he would have killed many more people. Perhaps someone will now claim that God intervened to cause his rifle to do so. Believers do tend to believe such things.
>>Inadequate gun control laws share a lot of the blame for the massacre.<<
DeleteNope, Holmes does. These incidents happen in the presence and absence of gun control. Holmes obtained his weapons legally, but there's little evidence that gun control deters people who really want guns.
>>There's no reason for someone having a semiautomatic rifle for defense.<<
Millions of people own them. Only an infinately small percentage pull a stunt like Holmes. So you're wrong. They are not a purely offensive weapon. You think so because they scare you and they scare you because you're a wuss. Let's not allow your wussiness to dictate policy here, m'kay?
>>Would the deranged shooter have attempted to do what he did if he'd been only armed with hand guns?<<
Jared Loughner did. So I will say yes to that one.
>>It's fortunate that his rifle jammed, otherwise he would have killed many more people.<<
Yes, very forunate.
>>Perhaps someone will now claim that God intervened to cause his rifle to do so. Believers do tend to believe such things.<<
And unbelievers tend to explit every terrible news event as "proof" that God doe snot exist. I don't think that God caused Holmes's rifle to jam. I think it jammed because he didn't do proper preventitive service on it, thank goodness.
JQ
Well, the Olympics are being held in Londonistan, after all.
ReplyDeleteBut the UN is defunct and worse. It is a real threat to the life and freedoms of hundreds of millions of souls.
ReplyDeleteYour neck must get sore from looking around for those black helicopters all the time.
The IOC does have plans to commemorate the Munich massacre on 5 Sept in Munich. They already did hold a moment of silence prior to the start of the games. There should have been a more significant commemoration during the games itself, but the IOC is not ignoring the terrorist event entirely.
ReplyDeleteEgnor said: “As for the International Olympic Committee's refusal to offer even one minute for a brief tribute to the athletes murdered by Muslim terrorists 40 years ago in Munich, there's no need for an exhaustive analysis.
There's a simple explanation.
The athletes were Jews.”
The better explanation is that the IOC is full of Milquetoasts. They are more interested in having a high participation than anything else. This is why there are more nations participating in the games than there are member nations of the UN. They weren’t too keen on the 9/11 commemoration at the Salt Lake games if you recall.
Weinthal said: “All of this helps to explain why conservatives have played a key role in the call to remember the murdered Israeli athletes...”
“Liberals” have been quite vocal about adding a moment of silence. President Obama has called for a moment of silence. As has Secretary Clinton. The Democratically controlled US Senate passed a resolution to that effect too. As have the legislative bodies of such liberal bastions as Canada, Germany, and Australia. Strangely, the leadership of the Republican controlled US House refused to allow a similar resolution to come to a floor vote. I suppose It depends on how you define “key” and “conservative”.
stjones911: “Well, the Olympics are being held in Londonistan, after all.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson has called for a commemoration as well.
-L
That's what I love about Egnor's blog: whatever he writes, you know the opposite must be true.
Delete