The Sounds of Silence

There has been a groundswell of support for a minute’s silence for the Munich 11, from parliamentarians around the world, to celebrities, to regular people expressing their sentiments online. Notwithstanding this, the IOC has still not budged.

In their mind, having the minute’s silence would create more trouble than it’s worth. In response to it, you would have 20 something Arab countries and however many more that hate Israel boycott the opening ceremony. From there, it is certain to degenerate into a circus when all the IOC wants to do is run a sporting event.

This is why sports and politics should never mix. In sport it’s about having respect for your opponent and even though you will do everything in your power to win fair and square, you don’t begrudge your opponent’s right to do same. Ultimately, you would hope that he/she/they have the same respect for you. When you don’t have this respect for your opponent, doping and cheating occurs.

In sport you give it your all, but then once it’s done you shake hands with your opponents.

Politics is about back-room deals. You don’t care how you win as long as you do so and of course, there is no room for the truth in politics. Lies and Machiavellian ways are part and parcel of it.

Therefore, when the two are brought together, something has to give and most often its justice and compassion that are the casualties.

The terrorists don’t play fair. They don’t get that the minute’s silence is in response to 11 Israelis killed at Munich. They would interpret the minute’s silence as an act of aggression and want to respond to it.

The IOC could take a stand but what if they’re threatened with bombs going off at the opening ceremony? Given the parlous state that G4S finds itself in, who would feel safe?

What annoys the terrorists more than a minute’s silence is that Israel even competes at the Games. They can’t even have their competitors compete against Israeli one. Think about the propaganda value, if an Iranian wrestler defeated an Israeli one? The person would be feted as a hero and have streets and babies named after them.

However, they don’t let that happen. They would rather their competitors forfeit and disqualify themselves then compete against someone from Israel. Just as they would, rather one of their people kills themselves if it means he takes a few Jews with him.

That there is a minute’s silence or not isn’t the problem; that we’re asking for it in the first place is.