Soccer Dad

Olympic Quality Appeasement

During the Summer Olympics of 1972 Palestinian terrorists broke into the living quarters of the Israeli athletes, killed two, and took others hostage. The terrorists took their hostages to the airport. In the bungled German rescue attempt, all the hostages were killed. In all eleven Israeli athletes were killed.
(VIA LGF) For more information on the massacre there's a blogburst at Kesher Talk and an excellent well documented entry at the WordIQ Dictionary.
My interest in bringing this up is the person I recalled as the villain at the time: Avery Brundage. Brundage, one time Olympic athlete, was the head of the IOC at the time and said that the "... Games must go on". I remember, as an almost twelve year old, being appalled by his insenstivity. But the games went on.
It was only 32 years ago. I wonder if anyone remembers.
But 36 years earlier, Brundage was already at it. He vouched for the goodwill of the Germans for the 1936 Olympics - in Berlin. The great sportswriter, the late Shirley Povich was unwilling to view Brundage as naive. Brundage knew what was going on:

The evidence against the Nazis was already immense. In his excellent book, "The Nazi Olympics," Richard D. Mandell noted that Julius Streicher, a Hitler favorite and editor of "Der Sturmer," wrote: "We waste no words here. . . . Jews are Jews. And there is no place for them in German sports. . . . Germany is the Fatherland of Germans, not Jews." Also, Brundage had to be aware of the reprehensible anti-Semitic climate in Germany when William Shirer, the CBS correspondent, wrote that he saw a sign in Ludwigshafen that read: "Drive carefully! Sharp curve! Jews 75 miles an hour!"

Brundage's behavior in 1936, effectively presaged his actions in 1972, 36 years later. I don't believe it was only his belief in the supremacy of sport; he must have been motivated by a healthy dose of antisemitism too. Appropriately, perhaps, Brundage died in Germany in 1975.
1972 put the damper on my interest in the Olympics for awhile. My children watch it now without knowing what happened long before they were born. But every summer Olympics I remember.
It's not only Brundage who excused the terror in 1972. Why a famous sports reporter for ABC News did too. Martin Peretz wrote of one of is earliest recollections of Peter Jennings, in the New Republic of March 18, 1995:

The first time I ever remember being conscious of Jennings at all was in September 1972, only hours after the murder by Palestinian terrorists of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. Jennings came on the tube, quite cool about the victims but, as I recall, eager to explain the act from the victimizers' point of view: the massacre was a demonstration of the misunderstood and esperate Palestinians' frustration at an unappeased grievance--as if they had not had from the beginning the option of a negotiated compromise for peace. With authoritatively clipped speech and a mannequin-handsome face, I thought, here was someone whose banalities were destined to be with us for years.

(In fairness to Jennings he wrote a letter to TNR claiming that his views had been misrepresented. I don't recall that Peretz was convinced.)
Appeaser once; appeaser for all time.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at August 22, 2004 06:02 AM | TrackBack