Israeli National Team featured in Sports Illustrated

Re: Sports Illustrated Article

1.) Wahl earned a degree in politics from Princeton; I hardly think he's unaware of global situations such as the endless one in Israel.
2.) Wahl is not Jewish, nor is he a Nazi, nor is he an anti-Semite.
3.) Please keep in mind that nearly all magazine writers must give up their work to editors.
4.) In my personal opinion, Americans get very little information that ever portrays our Arabic and/ or Muslim fellow humans in a positive light. The United States has historically been an ally of Israel and remains so for many good reasons, but this sometimes opens us up to fair criticism that we do not pay as much attention to the Arabic and/ or Muslim experience. A significant part of our population thinks Israel weilds its historical victim status like a bludgeon--and those who think this way aren't necessarily anti-Semite Nazi PC non-intellectuals . . .
5.) Most of you do realize Wahl travelled to Israel for the piece, right?
6.) While I think the true spirit of sport should be as apolitical/ unpolitical as possible, I'm not sure that means it is that way or that there aren't some compelling stories out there most Americans never get to hear. Just my two cents.

1.) Wahl earned a degree in politics from Princeton; I hardly think he's unaware of global situations such as the endless one in Israel.
2.) Wahl is not Jewish, nor is he a Nazi, nor is he an anti-Semite.
3.) Please keep in mind that nearly all magazine writers must give up their work to editors.
4.) In my personal opinion, Americans get very little information that ever portrays our Arabic and/ or Muslim fellow humans in a positive light. The United States has historically been an ally of Israel and remains so for many good reasons, but this sometimes opens us up to fair criticism that we do not pay as much attention to the Arabic and/ or Muslim experience. A significant part of our population thinks Israel weilds its historical victim status like a bludgeon--and those who think this way aren't necessarily anti-Semite Nazi PC non-intellectuals . . .
5.) Most of you do realize Wahl travelled to Israel for the piece, right?
6.) While I think the true spirit of sport should be as apolitical/ unpolitical as possible, I'm not sure that means it is that way or that there aren't some compelling stories out there most Americans never get to hear. Just my two cents.
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1. I don't care if Wahl has 10 degrees from Princeton. It doesn't mean he is objective in his approach
2. Anyone familiar with American culture realizes being compared to racist American whites of the past is not complimentary to say the least. I deeply resent use liberal use of the analogy he uses that the current condition of Arab citizens of Israel are in any way, analogous to the condition of most American blacks in the past when they could not vote ,could not attend college etc.Arab citizens of Israel have full voting rights (unlike Arab residents of Arab countries) ,attend Universities and obviously can participate in sports at the highest levels.
3.A journalist who traveled to Israel doesn't necessarily mean he is an objective observer. I refer you to Honest Reporting.com and other similar web
sites
4. Bozmanite :I kindly suggest you return to Stormfront or National Vanguard .

Well... the article was biased. I'll agree with that contention. It focuses on the negative--as opposed to the positive. Wahl could have written a story on "look how these people come together" and instead wrote a story on "look how these people suffer yet still play soccer". He could have mentioned how Ariel Sharon has personally pledged to build a stadium for Sakhnin or how a Russian billionnaire just sponsored the team. Or how players on the NT or Grant don't discriminate at all--how soccer transcends politics.

The article also condemned Israeli bad actions without condemning other bad actions. The racist chants that occur in Israel occur in every country in Europe--usually worst than in Israel. While Israel should be condemned for these chants, it is anti-semitic to condemn Israel in a vacuum without noting that such chants are common place in every country in Europe.

I'm glad the article appeared--and I don't blame the author--because he wouldn't have been able to get it printed without a hook--but I'd hope that future articles aren't so biased.

You're batty.

I think the article was more a description of the difficulties faced by Arabs in Israel, their feelings of isolation from mainstream society, the internal conflicts Suan faces in playing for Israel, and the possibility that the national team's run towards Germany '06 might signal an opportunity for unity amongst arabs and jews, than it was a criticism of Israel or any Israelis beyond some right wing extremists. What strikes me is that while Suan describes vividly the plight of arabs in Israel, he encourages not separation and violence, but increased unity through peaceful dialogue such that Israeli Arabs will be able to participate more fully and feel more a part of Israeli society. I will not pretend to be an expert on Israeli society by evaluating either Suan's or Wahl's perspective in terms of its accuracy. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article. Mordecai Spiegler's quote about Basel and Theodore Hertzl was great, after all we can certainly use all the help we can get on saturday. And besides this has to be the first time either the word Goyim or Shpillkus (transliterated as well as possible) has appeared in SI. Best of all, the story was not promoted anywhere on the cover meaning Israel has a fighting chance on Saturday.

To Psychedelic Celtic
" You're batty"
You really have a way with words. Perhaps ,it is the toxic effects of all the hallucinogens you are taking. What about my post is "batty"? You can't dispute it with factual information . I suggest you stay off the LSD.
Cheers!

Anyone who belittles rasicm against Arabs (or for that matter Russian Jews or Etheopian Jews is in Israel):

Has obviously not been on a bus in Jeruselem.


For all their concern with anti-semetism, Israelis are overall a fairly rascist bunch.

Well, I've ridden many buses in Jerusalem, but I don't understand the grounds for your comment.

Anyway, what's your point? That Wahl's article does indeed portray Israeli society as racist and that this portrayal is justified? Please clarify.

Off topic question

Off topic question for Bozemanite: Do you really support the club you claim to support? I would think you would know how to spell their name correctly if you did.

Re: Off topic question

O/T:

I do:

Fenerbahçe

I lived in Turkey for quite some time, so, yeah: embarrassing.

On topic:
I'm glad the SI essay appeared at all as it has at least sparked a lot of discussion. It's not perfect, as with anything, and I don't love the repeated line the essay begins with, but I just don't get the billious, illogical responses such as some of the ones on the board. Lotta trolls here that seem to keep getting fed. I want to believe that the rigors of reason trump facile arguments, but sometimes none of that matters when you're dealing with gassbag reactionaries.

Very well said. Not fairly racist the most racist people on earth.

Thanks for the rep,

Right:
I guess Palestinians and Israelis sit just about anywhere on buses, paying no heed to to where the gas tank is, and who sits besides them.

I guess there never was a dicriminatory policy of allowing only married Palestinians of a certain age work in Israel.

I guess no completely innocent Palestinians were mistreated, lest alone killed by Israelis, they are all a bunch of suicide bombers anyways, right?

I guess Ethiopian and Russian jews never faced rather severe discriminated against in Israel.

I guess we should just ignore all this racial descrimination, while striving for the abolishment of anti-semetism (which dont get me wrong, I think is evil and should not be tollereated), and yell at the guy who mentions it.



Anyways, didn't mean to offend anyone, just commenting on a point brought up earlier. In any case, my visit to the Israel boards has been an exceptional one, and you ofcourse were gracious and welcoming hosts, cheers.

My point is simply that you should not cry out in horror when someone portrays Israelis in a negative light and makes allegations of racism.... as racism does exist in Israel.

Racism does exist in Israel. And in America. And in every country in the world. Its not anti-semitic to acknowledge that it exists in Israel. It is anti-semitic to acknowledge that it exists in Israel without also mentioning that it exists in every country in the world. That doesn't make it any less bad when it occurs in Israel. It does, however, put things in perspective.

I agree...
There is racism everywhere. I cannot stop people from smoking pot in Israel, does that make Israel a haven for druggies? NO!

I cannot stop someone from yelling slurs against another person. Israel is a free place, but if the slurs are threatning or can lead to harm, than the right authorities can intervene and upprehand he/she. Even in Early incidents...

The question is; does Israel have an institution that has racist or practices racism? And the answer is; no!

The Israeli team is very weak. They like suck.

Consider that they have probably been asked a similar set of questions many times. You have to wonder if the name Sports Illustrated had any particular significance to them in reference to the other writeres. In my experience, Grant Wahl has been an excellent and credible writer for SI.