Olympics Terror? It's Happened Before

Joseph Farah
Tue, 17 May 2016 21:00:00 -0700
Opinion

As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in August, intelligence agencies around the world, including Brazil's, are warning about the high threat of Islamic terrorist attacks at the Games.

As an old-timer, reading these reports, I was struck by the realization that most people alive today have no recollection of what happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

To set the scene, 1972 was only 27 years after the end of World War II. The previous Olympic Games hosted by Germany in 1936 was under the watch of Adolf Hitler. That was where Jesse Owens stole the show.
Updated: Wed May 18, 2016

As Rio de Janeiro prepares to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in August, intelligence agencies around the world, including Brazil's, are warning about the high threat of Islamic terrorist attacks at the Games.

As an old-timer, reading these reports, I was struck by the realization that most people alive today have no recollection of what happened at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

To set the scene, 1972 was only 27 years after the end of World War II. The previous Olympic Games hosted by Germany in 1936 was under the watch of Adolf Hitler. That was where Jesse Owens stole the show.

But in 1972, German officials sought to put all those Nazi memories aside and set out to host what it called "Die Heiteren Spiele," or "the cheerful Games."

Let's just say that's not how they are remembered.

Historically, the Games themselves have been largely overshadowed by what became known as the "Munich Massacre." On Sept. 5, a group of eight armed members of the Black September Arab terrorist group under the sponsorship and direction of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization broke into the Olympic village and took hostage in their apartments nine Israeli athletes, coaches and officials. Two others who resisted were killed in the first few moments of the attack.

For the next 18 hours there was a standoff. Late that evening, the terrorists and their captives were transferred by helicopter to a military airport where they expected to board a plane for an undisclosed terrorist-friendly Middle East nation. At the airport, in a botched rescue effort by German forces, the remaining nine Israelis were killed, along with five terrorists. Four of the Israelis were shot and then incinerated when one of the terrorists detonated grenade inside the helicopter where they were sitting. The other five hostages were machine-gunned to death.

Three of the terrorists were taken alive and exchanged six weeks later for a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner. Two of the terrorists were later hunted down and assassinated, presumably by Israelis in an operation known as "Operation Wrath of God." One is reportedly still alive and in hiding.

Maybe you know all that.

But there's a component of this story I have told many times over the years that always shocks the public — including many who were alive and watched this tragic spectacle on television.

While this attack was taking place, the Games were suspended for a few hours.

Then, immediately after they concluded, Olympics officials in Germany decided, with little international protest, to resume the Games without delay.

Avery Brundage, the International Olympic Committee president, exclaimed, "The Games must go on."

Can you imagine?

Do you remember?

An Islamic terrorist attack resulted in the deaths of 11 Israelis. But the Games had to go on — with no time for reflection or mourning.

And as for "Operation Wrath of God," it wasn't entirely effective. While all but one of the terrorists were killed, those responsible for directing them and financing the attack survived.

In fact, the man who wrote the checks to the operatives is today in charge of the Palestinian Authority, the successor to Yasser Arafat. His name, of course, is Mahmoud Abbas. The "international community" characterizes him as a "moderate." The pope once called him "an angel of peace."

It's not that Abbas had a chance of heart. He's still the same anti-Jewish terrorist he always was.

In 1982, 10 years after Munich, Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis at Moscow's Oriental College in 1982, putting forth the proposition that far fewer than 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Even worse, he actually accused the Jews of conspiring with Hitler to annihilate European Jewry. Abbas accused the Jews of deliberately inflating the numbers of those killed in concentration camps to pave the way for a Jewish state. He may have been one of the first to equate Zionism with Nazism. In the version of his doctoral paper later published under the title, "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement," Abbas denied the German use of gas chambers and suggested the total number of Jews killed was fewer than 1 million.

Despite this incredible charge, Abbas still enjoys the reputation of a "moderate." He still enjoys the reputation of a "pragmatist." He still enjoys the reputation of a "statesman" — perhaps even an indispensable statesman.

This is Israel's so-called "partner for peace." This is the guy Barack Obama and John Kerry insist Israel should bargain with — give concessions to.

Too many have forgotten the lessons of Munich 1972.

And you know what they say about those who don't learn the lessons of history.

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.