No great surprise that Argentina cancelled their friendly against Israel. Given Argentina's recent history of terrorism against Jews - the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, and the AMIA bombing in 1994, for which, amid accusations of a cover-up, no one has yet been charged - it's perhaps understandable that the Argentinians are reluctant to risk antagonising the Palestinians. Still, the claim of moral rectitude - striker Gonzalo Higuain said they had "finally done the right thing" - after basically capitulating to threats of violence, does leave a bad taste.
Liel Leibovitz, in Tablet:
After Jibril Rajub—the head of the Palestinian Football Association and a convicted terrorist who spent 15 years in prison for a grenade attack—called on fans to burn Messi jerseys and photographs unless Argentina’s team cancels the friendly match in Jerusalem, the team succumbed to the pressure and yesterday announced that it will not be traveling to Israel.
“Values, morals and sport have secured a victory today and a red card was raised at Israel through the cancellation of the game,” said Rajoub, whose values and morals include repeatedly praising Hamas for kidnapping and killing Israelis and claiming, in 2014, that “Hitler could’ve learned from the Israelis how to build death camps.”
Embodying the spirit of sportsmanship everywhere, Rajub also stated, in 2012, that “there will never be any normalization in sports. Next time, we’ll fly members of our organized committee in helicopters so that they don’t have to see any Jews, don’t see any devils, don’t see any Zionist sons of dogs.”
These are the people with whom Messi and his teammates chose to side. No matter how they fare in the World Cup beginning later this month, they’ve already lost the only challenge that matters, that of basic moral decency.
Why should Argentina be intimidated by the thought of "antagonizing the Palestinians"? Am I missing something?
Posted by: Gene | June 06, 2018 at 03:21 PM
I hate football.. Just hate it.
Posted by: Shir | June 06, 2018 at 05:20 PM
Well, intimidated by the implicit threat, as I see it, of some kind of retribution. Starting with the burning of Messi shirts....
Posted by: Mick H | June 06, 2018 at 05:40 PM
Just keep calm and hate on football. Hopefully we could get the eurovision canceled next year as well. Turn Teddy Stadium into a Live RPG arena :)
Long Live the ISSFF
https://www.sf-f.org.il/en/
Posted by: shir | June 06, 2018 at 08:51 PM
Funny and predictable how none of the enlightening detail about Rajub et al was included in the Guardian coverage of the issue.
Posted by: Tank | June 06, 2018 at 08:55 PM