Refusing to Commemorate Munich

In spite of a prolonged effort to have a minute's silence set aside at the 2012 Olympics to remember the Israeli athletes who were murdered at the Munich games in 1972, the IOC remains steadfast in its refusal. Deborah Lipstadt is outraged:

The IOC’s explanation is nothing more than a pathetic excuse. The athletes who were murdered were from Israel and were Jews—that is why they aren’t being remembered. The only conclusion one can draw is that Jewish blood is cheap, too cheap to risk upsetting a bloc of Arab nations and other countries that oppose Israel and its policies.

I have long inveighed against the tendency of some Jews to see anti-Semitism behind every action that is critical of Israel or of Jews. In recent years some Jews have been inclined to hurl accusations of anti-Semitism even when they are entirely inappropriate. By repeatedly crying out, they risk making others stop listening—especially when the cry is true.

The accusation of anti-semitic sentiment here is perhaps a little much, but so is the IOC's characterization of the massacre as a political event.