commentaries

The aim of the PLO was to politicize the Olympics. The aim of Israel 40 years later is to again politicize the Olympics. Contrary to the implication of Mr. Rash, the IOC has planned appropriate official memorials for the Munich victims during the 2012 Olympics. We are the future, and we have learned to appropriately honor the past, concentrate on the present, and keep politics out of the Olympics as much as possible.

The aim of the PLO 40 years ago was to gain approval for terrorism. Palestinians and their sympathizers continue to rationalize it to this day! Israel's goal is NOT to politicize the Olympics! It is, as the article clearly stated, to give the victims their long overdue recognition on the world stage, rather than in some underpopulated auditorium. If the IOC "has planned appropriate official memorials for the Munich victims", why didn't Jacque Rogge mention them in his letter to Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon?! BTW, how is the IOC defining "appropriate"? Is it anything that doesn't offend the Palestinians or Germans?!

How many times must the IOC memorialize this? In how big of a venue? With how big of an audience? Why make a big issue of it NOW? 40 years? At 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 years...? 50 years is a common, major benchmark for remembering an event, as is 25. How about memorializing the Arab, British, and other victims of the terrorism of the Jewish groups in the 1930s and 1940s--Irgun, the Stern Gang, and the Haganah? Most Americans and people in the world don't anything about them, and they killed far more civilians than were killed at Munich.

@europea. I was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. When it comes to politics, the IOC works it both ways and always has. To sell their product, which is a fiscal white elephant, the IOC plays up the political angle of the Olympics, that it denotes a country's arrival on the world political stage, that it's about nations coming together, etc. When the IOC is then asked to take stands in support of basic human rights, as when two elderly Chinese women were tortured by the Chinese police after showing up in an officially designated "protest zone" during the Olympics, the IOC goes mute, claiming that it's nothing more than a sporting organization while lamely decrying efforts to "politicize" the Olympics. The IOC and the modern Olympics are about one thing: money. It's sad because, for many of the athletes, this is the only time the world will tune in and see what they are capable of. The world deserves a lot better than the IOC.

The Olympics have always been political Mr Rash.The United States did boycott the Olympic summer games in 1980 in Moscow.Most Americans strongly supported this.Remember why? The Red Army invaded Afganistan in 1979.The USSR boycotted the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984.The Olympics are too much about nations,flag waving,and national anthems.In 1936,the equestian team was made up of active duty US Army officers who rode in uniform.The same was true for other countries in this event.It should only be about athletic competition.The Israelis were murdered trying to compete.

Does anyone really get excited about the Olympics anymore? I don't. They are boring.