Today’s Top Stories
1. The fallout from the cancelled Argentine soccer match has some tie-ins with Israel hosting next year’s Eurovision competition. Does the cancelled soccer match foreshadow the nixing of future athletic and cultural events in Israel?
2. It’s looking increasingly likely that next year’s Eurovision competition will not be held in Jerusalem, Haaretz reports. It’s complicated because of A) political and security sensitivities now highlighted by this week’s soccer snub, B) religious demands that the competition and its related logistics cause no Sabbath desecration, and C) a growing reluctance among the Eurovision brass who feel that Jerusalem is “too charged” for the event.
3. Did Qatar have a hand in Argentina’s cancellation?
“We’re understanding more and more that the real issue here is not the threats (against the Argentine team and star player Lionel Messi—ed.), which are only an unreliable excuse, but a wealthy Arab state bribing a poor soccer association,” the source said.
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Israel and the Palestinians
| • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev each claim the other was the one to ask to move the Israel-Argentina match from Haifa to Jerusalem.
• Regev threatened to withdraw Israel from hosting Eurovision if the competition isn’t in Jerusalem.
• Israel is calling for FIFA to investigate Palestinian soccer chief Jibril Rajoub for making threats against Lionel Messi and his teammates. I’m not aware of Messi publicly commenting on any of this. |
The controversy’s key players
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Meanwhile, the Argentines told AP that the terror threats they caved in to came from Hamas.
A senior official at the Argentine Football Federation said the national team decided to call off the match with Israel after receiving threats from Hamas.
The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns, did not provide evidence or details of the alleged threats.
A Hamas official mocked reports that the group had threatened the players, calling them unrealistic, and saying they don’t deserve a comment.
• Israel’s state comptroller, Joseph Shapira, said he is going to investigate Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev’s handling of the canceled Argentina- Israel soccer game.
• A 21-year-old Palestinian who is a member of the Strip’s “kite flying unit” talked to Ynet about his activities, insisting they’ll continue playing with fire.
He revealed the “kites unit” operates like an organization, but claimed it has no connection to Hamas.
“We’re young people from all across the Gaza Strip. We’re divided into groups according to areas, and each group has one person in charge who decides when to fly kites and how many. We have no aid from Hamas and we don’t need it. Preparing each kite, with its incendiary device, costs us three or four shekels,” he explained.
• According to Israeli media reports, drones downed over 350 incendiary terror kites and balloons.
• Ynet picked up on a video purporting to show Razan Najar, the Palestinian nurse killed during Gaza clashes, throwing a gas grenade. The video was posted on Facebook by the IDF’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee.
Window into Israel
• The Knesset rejected a bill that would have required the government to finish construction of the West Bank security barrier, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Work began on the barrier in 2002 during a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and shooting attacks. It was never fully finished due to a combination of politics, bureaucracy, budget battles, legal challenges and other priorities. About 60 percent of the barrier’s 790 km route has been completed.
• According to Israel media reports, “female prison guards with the Israel Prison Service have allegedly been sexually harassed by terrorists after being transferred to the high-security ward at the request of an influential inmate.”
Commentary
• Plenty of spilled ink and burnt pixels over the soccer snub.
– Ben Sales: Why it’s a big deal that Argentina canceled its soccer game in Israel
– Miguel Winazki: Goal for hypocrisy in World Cup soccer
– Raz Shechnik: When politics suffocates sports
– Ross Clark: Argentina, why not boycott the entire World Cup?
– Jerusalem Post (staff-ed) Kick politics out of sports
– Anshel Pfeffer: BDS is still a failure – don’t let Netanyahu’s Argentine soccer debacle fool you
– Haim Shine: Terrorism has no place in sports
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Lenny Ben-David: Why Israelis won’t apologize for killing of Gaza nurse
– Bassam Tawil: Palestinian kite flyers: “Burn the Jews!”
– Charles Bybelezer: In distorting US Ambassador Friedman’s message, the media proves his point
– Jonathan Tobin: Ambassador David Friedman’s crude pro-Israel activism devalues US diplomacy
– Einat Wilf, Adi Schwartz: How UNRWA prevents Gaza from thriving
– Peter Lerner: Israel has to talk to Hamas. Otherwise, it’s war
– Norman Bailey: Putin gives Israel carte-blanche
– Yonah Jeremy Bob: Iran’s nuke moves are more bark than bite . . . so far
Featured image: CC BY woodleywonderworks;; soccer ball CC0 Pixabay;
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