Sometimes Soccer Isn’t Just Soccer
Michael Leeden in NRO compares two recent soccer games and shows how deeply soccer fans reflect politics.

In Tehran, rioting breaks out after a victory in a match over Japan, but the MSM misses that the rioting is directed at demonstrating opposition to the current regime.

In Israel, the home team tied Ireland 1 to 1 and harmony and good will reigned.

Never before had an Arab saved the Israeli national team. The savior was Suwan Abbas, who scored the tying goal [1-1] in the first minute of penalty time in the game against Ireland. Abbas is the captain of Sakhnin, the only mixed [Arab and Jewish] team in the Israel championship.

"Yes, it was very moving to hear forty thousand people chant my name. The goal" — said Suwan, called an "Israeli hero" on the front page of the daily Yedioth Aharonoth — "is dedicated to everyone in Israel. Enough with all this talk about Jews and Arabs, we are a single people..."

Read all of Leeden's article by clicking on the title.

Check out more coverage of the Israel / Ireland game (with some nice pictures) which brought many happy Irish tourists to Israel and injected some welcomed money into Israel's still-recovering tourism industry at Shai's blog: A Very Irish Purim. - served up by Doctor Bean @ 8:15 PM