The Middle East Media Sampler 8/9/2012: Now NIE Says Iran IS a Threat

From DG:

1) We wouldn't want to make the same mistake again

David Ignatius in a column, The Myth of the Mad Mullahs, celebrating the 2007 NIE that concluded that Iran had stopped working towards producing a nuclear weapon, wrote:

The debate about what the NIE should mean for U.S. policy toward Iran is just beginning. But for the intelligence community, this rebuttal of conventional wisdom will restore some integrity after the Iraq WMD debacle. In challenging the previous certitudes about Iran and the Bomb, the NIE recalls the admonition many decades ago by the godfather of CIA analysts, Sherman Kent: "When the evidence seems to force a single and immediate conclusion, then that is the time to worry about one's bigotry, and to do a little conscientious introspection."

Video: London Ceremony Honors Memory of Israeli Athletes Murdered In Munich Massacre

On Monday, a special ceremony was held by the Jewish community in London to remember the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics:

A ceremony was held here tonight to remember the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972, and the controversy caused by the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) refusal to hold a minute's silence in the London 2012 Opening Ceremony was never far from the agenda.

That made for an at times uncomfortable night for IOC President Jacques Rogge, who at one point had to sit and listen as Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Israeli fencing coach Andre, killed in 1972, condemned him personally.

Here is the video:

Olympic Head Rogge Will Speak At Memorial For Israeli Victims Of Munich Massacre

Next week, IOC president Jacques Rogge will speak at a memorial for Israeli's killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics:

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, will speak next week at a ceremony in memory of the athletes murdered at the Munich Games, organized by the Israelis and British Jews, it was announced Tuesday.

Video: Guri Weinberg, Son of Israeli Coach Murdered During 1972 Munich Olympics, Speaks Out

Guri Weinberg was one month old when his father, Moshe Weinberg and ten other Israeli athletes were tortured and murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Here Weinberg speaks out against the IOC's (International Olympic Committee) 40-year refusal of a 1 Minute Moment of Silence, while talking with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Videos: Bob Costas and Brian Williams Condemn Olympic Failure To Commemorate Munich Massacre

Two sports broadcasters who condemned the Olympic Committee's failure to commemorate the athletes were who murdered at the Olympics in the Munich Massacre:

Bob Costas on Olympic Committe president Rogge's refusal to honor the victims of Palestinian terrorism on the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacre:

IOC President Jacques Rogge Looks Good In A Keffiyah

IOC President Jacques Rogge Demonstrates His Objectivity while in the Palestinian territories 2 years ago:

The caption reads:

PRESS RELEASE

Hundreds gather in Trafalgar Square to remember 11 murdered Israeli athletes

This morning at 10.45 BST around 400 people gathered in London's Trafalgar Square at a vigil organised by the British Israel Coalition, to remember the athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The gathering was a response to the International Olympic Committee's sustained refusal to include a minute of silence in the opening ceremony due to be held tonight.

Arlene Kushner On Palestinian Condemnation Of Minute Of Silence

From Arlene Kushner

July 26, 2012

Ludicrous

Sometimes the PA comes out with a statement that is so ludicrous that the impulse is to simply laugh at it.  This is the case with the statement made by Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, in a letter sent to President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, thanking him for his stand in refusing a moment of silence for the Israeli Olympic athletes massacred 40 years ago in Munich:

"Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them."

Read: PA: Moment of silence at Olympics would be racism

Blackmail: Arab States Threatened To Walk If Olympics Have Moment Of Silence

The Algemeiner reports Olympic Committee VP: Fear of Arab Boycott Led to Minute of Silence Rejection:

According to an interview given by Thomas Bach, the Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, the threats to boycott the opening ceremony made by Arab states in the event of an official minute of silence, have led the IOC to mark the 40 year anniversary in other ways, including a minute of silence on Monday inside the Olympic Village, led by IOC President Jacques Rogge.

The Arab boycott “had been a possibility, according to some of our advice”, Bach said according to Israel’s Channel 2 news.

Imagine that: it looks like the Olympic Committee was right all along--it is political!

So the issue was just whether the OIC was going to cave into threats.
And we have our answer.

Technorati Tag: Israel and London Olympics and Munich Massacre.

There Is Precedent For Olympics Honoring Civilians Murdered By Terrorists

Back in February 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the moment of silence at the Winter Olympics for the victims of 9/11:

Sixty thousand people stood as one in respectful silence at the start of the program when the tattered American flag, recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center disaster, was carried into the stadium by eight U.S. athletes accompanied by three New York Port Authority police officers.

Chutzpah: Palestinians Murder Israeli Athletes--Then Cry Its Racism To Commemorate

The Palestinian Authority is against the moment of silence at the Olympics to commemorate the Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972. According to the headline in the official PA daily, "Sports are meant for peace, not for racism."

According to Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee:
"Sports are meant for peace, not for racism... Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them [nations]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 25, 2012]
PA against moment of silence at Olympics: "Sports are meant for peace, not for racism", Palestinian Media Watch

Of course, no one would expect the Palestinian Authority to apologize for murdering Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

No, seriously: no one would expect it.

And neither would one expect the cruel hypocrisy of today's Palestinian leadership to draw reaction from the global community either:

Jibril Rajoub lectures the world that sports are for peace and love, and not for spreading racism--when Palestinian terrorists murdered athletes at the world's greatest sports event specifically because they were Israelis.

More to the point: the Palestinian Authority is proud to have killed Israeli athletes.

Very proud.

Palestine Media Watch documents that wo proud are they of the Munich Massacre, that the Palestinians cannot stop praising the killers of the athletes, and even vow to follow in their path --

Apparently, #Palestinians Prefer Terrorism To A Minute Of Silence

The Arab pressure to prevent a minute of silence at the London Olympics makes clear where they stand on the issue, but what do the Palestinian Arabs think of it?

Palestinian Arabs claim Israel's minute of silence at the London Olympics is a distraction:

But in the poisoned atmosphere of Palestinian-Israeli relations, the Israeli request is seen by Palestinians as a political stunt. Leading Palestinian politicians oppose the moment of silence, viewing it as a ploy to cast Israel as the victim in the conflict and to distract attention from Israeli practices today, including the military occupation of the West Bank.

Munich Olympic Massacre: Germany Bungling AND Cover Up

The Der Spiegel article that reveals Munich Olympics Massacre Officials Ignored Warnings of Terrorist Attack, also reveals that German officials also hid the extent to which they bungled the situation:

Already on Sept. 7, just one day after the memorial ceremony for the victims took place in Munich's Olympic Stadium, a Foreign Ministry official told a special sitting of the federal cabinet what would ultimately become the maxim for both Bavarian and West German officials. "Mutual incriminations must be avoided," a protocol for the meeting reads. "Also, no
self-criticism."

The Middle East Media Sampler 7/24/2012: Duck! You're On Egyptian Candid Camera

From DG:

1) Candid Egyptian Camera

A number of bloggers have written about the MEMRI video of Egyptian actors appearing on a TV show under the pretext that it's an interview with a German TV station. Then it slips that it is really an Israeli TV show and the subjects fly into rages over the deception. In the end each one is told that it was all a joke and the hosts and producers are all good Egyptians and Muslims and all is well.

The Hypocrisy Of The Refusal To Commemorate Munich Massacre At London Olympics

In her article "Jewish Blood Is Cheap", Deborah E. Lipstadt gives the real reason the Olympic Committee refuses to commemorate the Israeli athletes murdered in Munich

Why the IOC refusal? The Olympic Committee’s official explanation is that the games are apolitical. The families were repeatedly told by long-time IOC President Juan Samaranch that the Olympic movement avoided political issues. He seemed to have forgotten that at the 1996 opening ceremony he spoke about the Bosnian war. Politics were also present at the 2002 games, which opened with a minute of silence for the victims of 9/11.

The Middle East Media Sampler 6/4/2012: Behind London Olympic Silence On Munich Massacre

From DG:

1) Olympic Silence

The Boston Globe argues in An Olympic silence 40 years after Munich (h/t Jeff Jacoby):

So far, the IOC’s position has been that Rogge has previously attended memorial commemorations hosted by Israel’s Olympic committee, so there is no need for the international committee to pay tribute to the murdered athletes at the games themselves. But the Munich 11 weren’t killed at a private Israeli event. The terrorists invaded their dormitory in the Olympic Village, blindfolded and manacled them, and then killed them after a 20-hour standoff intently followed by a worldwide audience watching on television. 

Picture: Politics As Usual At The London Olympics: Israel is Located In Europe

The International Olympic Committee has made it clear that it will not comply with Israel's request for a moment of silence to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacre when 11 Israeli athletes were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

The IOC claims that they have "officially paid tribute to the memory of the athletes on several occasions" and "within the Olympic family, the memory of the victims of the terrible massacre in Munich in 1972 will never fade away."

Offically?

That is a lie. Bridget Johnson notes that the same fear that prevents the IOC from commemorating the murder of Olympic athletes because they are Israeli, also reduces the International Olympic Committee to craven submission:

Video: Request For #JustOneMinute Of Silence At Olympics To Commemorate Munich Massacre

In a new campaign--justoneminute--Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon calls on the International Olympic Committee to dedicate a minute of silence during the opening ceremony at this summer's London Olympic Games in memory of the eleven murdered Israeli athletes who were brutally murdered during the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.

Sign the petition International Olympic Committee: Minute of Silence at the 2012 London Olympics http://goo.gl/Gkw56

Go to the JustOneMinute Facebook page

Here is the video:




Technorati Tag: Israel and Munich Massacre and London Olympics and Terrorism.

London Olympics: Munich Massacre By Palestinian Terrorists Down The Memory Hole

[T]he decision to ignore Munich is just the latest illustration of the moral bankruptcy of the Games.
Jonathan Tobin

In light of the fact that the International Olympic Committee has refused an remembrance of the Olympics Munich Massacre, Jonathan Tobin writes that Ignoring Munich Massacre Reminds Us Olympics Are Pure Baloney

In the history of the modern Olympic Games there have been many scandals but only one terrorist massacre.