Is Israel The Boston Red Sox of The Western World?

Following the logic of Pat Sajak, maybe:

It's important to understand the necessity to baseball's health of having a team we all love to hate. When the Yankees went into prolonged funks from the mid-60's to the mid 70's and again in the pre-Joe Torre era of the late 80's and early 90's, it was not a good thing for the sport. Attendance and interest suffered when mediocrity reigned in The Bronx.

... It might seem strange to hate a team that spent so many decades enduring heartbreak, but those days are obviously over.

Sorry, Red Sox Nation, but success has its downside. Your team is no longer the sentimental favorite. They are the champions once again, and their future looks brighter than that of their arch-rival's. So revel in it, and rub the visiting teams' noses in it (even the home teams' when you can buy out their tickets), but somebody has to be the bad guy. Congratulations...it's you.

The days when Israel was the underdog are long over. The success of Jews as a people and Israel as a nation is noted passing in the media, but for the most part the media is busy writing about the suffering of Palestinian Arabs--brought about by their corrupt elected leadership which fires rockets at Israel and whines at the prospect of the consequences.

But if making the Boston Red Sox into the bad boys of baseball is good for baseball, just what purpose does it serve to paint Israel as the 'bad boy' of the Western World--other than provide fodder for the newspapers to save their sinking circulation?

Technorati Tag: Israel and Boston Red Sox.