July 29: IOC, PA and Israel

IOC, PA and Israel

Sir, – “Sports is a bridge for love,” wrote Jibril Rajoub in his letter to the International Olympic Committee (“PA thanks IOC for refusing to hold minute of silence,” July 27). If so why do the Palestinians spew such hatred?

He also described sports as a way for “relaying peace between peoples.” If so, why do they refuse to compete with Israeli teams? Is that not a “factor for separation and spreading racism...?” Rajoub accuses Israel of attempting to “exploit the Olympic Games for propaganda purposes.” The Palestinians are masters at that game and use it at every forum and opportunity to delegitimize Israel.

And if you love people, you do not go and murder them the way the Palestinians did in 1972, in this way dishonoring and belittling all the Olympic Games stand for.

The Israeli squad went to the games with hope and open hearts, to give what it is that athletes give. Maybe the Palestinian Authority should take a leaf out of their book.

VICKY SCHER
Jerusalem

Sir, – Jibril Rajoub’s congratulations to the IOC for not allowing a minute of silence on behalf of the murdered Israeli athletes accentuates the recognition that the murder of unarmed, innocent civilians is the Palestinian national sport.

ZVI FINK
Modi’in

Sir, – As a frequent critic of Israel’s policies on the West Bank I want to register my unconditional and infinite outrage about the International Olympic Committee’s utterly detestable refusal to commemorate the Israeli athletes who were ruthlessly and cold-bloodedly cut down with subhuman bestiality at the 1972 Olympic Games.

The Olympics, a place beyond politics, was violated by a bloodbath.

That the IOC will not commemorate this speaks volumes about the anti-Israelism in the world today.

That there will be no official commemoration is straight out of Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World and everything Franz Kafka wrote.

JAMES ADLER
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sir, – The International Olympic Committee’s refusal to even mention the names of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Olympics is nothing less than a travesty. It reveals without any doubt that it is not only elitist but immutably anti- Semitic.

The IOC not only insulted Israel and the Jewish people, it betrayed the very meaning and principle of the games. It, and not only the Germans, who hosted the Munich games, was responsible for the safety of our athletes.

What is called for is an acerbic denunciation of the IOC by our prime minister, a withdrawal from this year’s games and the Olympics altogether, a demand for the resignation of the entire IOC, especially its president, and a call for all decent and principled nations to join us.

RICHARD JACOBS
Haifa

Already underway

Sir, – The great Israeli comedian Talia Shapira liked to lower her voice and impart this truth to the audience: “Life has already got underway.” Please tell Hirsh Goodman, who in “A win-win situation” (PostScript, July 27) pleads for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, that negotiations are already underway.

When PA President Mahmoud Abbas sets preconditions for meeting with Israeli representatives, it is a move in the negotiations. When Israel refuses to comply, it is another move.

Time will choose the winner, and whichever party brings strength, smarts and patience will have time on its side.

MARK L. LEVINSON
Herzliya

Cruel cut

Sir, – Regarding the recent controversy about circumcision and its ban in Germany (“It’s not about Jew-hatred,” Letters, July 27), the Bible says that God created man in his own image. Since a male infant is born with foreskin, it must be assumed that God is uncircumcised also.

God is also supposed to be absolute and his creations perfect.

So who gave the right to man to mutilate what God created? One can be just as devout or Jewish with one’s foreskin as without. That this barbaric ritual has been practiced for umpteen years is no reason why it must continue forever.

ALEXANDER BAR-ELAN
Bitzaron

Sir, – Amid the current outcry over circumcision, it is an interesting sideline to note that for many years the British royal family (with roots in Germany, and certainly not Jewish) used to circumcise its male babies. Indeed, I was told that my own mohel (ritual circumciser), a highly respected physician, was “By Appointment” the official royal circumciser. This tradition was apparently ended by the late Princess Diana, who refused to have her sons circumcised.

Years later I tried to produce a documentary film on the history and practice of circumcision in different cultures. In the course of my research I wrote to Buckingham Palace with a serious request for some information, only to receive the following terse reply: “This information is not available.” By implication, the story was not denied.

GEOFFREY PREGER
Caesarea

Greenpeace speaks up

Sir, – In “‘Oil is here to stay’” (July 26), Patrick Moore falsely presents himself to the media and activists as an “expert” on environmental issues in order to promote anti-environmental positions.

While it is true that Moore was a member of Greenpeace in the past, he turned his back on the organization’s principles, surrendering to economic temptations. He claims he saw the “light,” so he left. Greenpeace believes that he fell victim to the economic interests of large corporations.

Moore is a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Institute (NEI), the Canadian energy firm Energy Next and dozens of other companies related to the mining, logging and polluting industries.

His judgment has been proven to be wrong in the past by the Atomic Energy Agency and the American Commission on Nuclear Energy Control, which showed that Moore was mistaken in his assessment of radiation leakage in nuclear reactors he claimed had been “secured” but later were revealed to have leaks that were much more dangerous.

Moore came to Israel to promote the dangerous prospecting of oil shale, something that has never succeeded anywhere else in the world. Greenpeace is well aware of society’s energy needs. It also understands and takes into account the needs of humanity and the importance in choosing to live in sustainable ways.

Oil extraction using unconventional methods is dangerous.

Not only does it not offer a long-term solution for fossil fuel energy or work with biodegradable materials, it endangers many of our vital natural resources.

DANI GIGI
Tel Aviv

The writer is communications officer for Greenpeace Mediterranean Tears for a tomb

Sir, – Michael Freund’s “Jewish unity and Joseph’s Tomb” (Fundamentally Freund, July 26) was so powerfully written that it brought tears to my eyes. When will justice enable the Jewish people to visit the tomb as it should be, instead of only occasionally and at three o’clock in the morning while escorted by the army?

THELMA BLUMBERG ABRAMOWITZ
Jerusalem

The writer is grandmother of Ben-Yosef Livnat, who was killed by Palestinian police in April 2011 during an unescorted nighttime visit to Joseph’s Tomb