The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As a 13-year-old boy, my life was dominated by only two things: girls and wrestling. Both would prove to be challenging. So, imagine the anticipation building for the 1972 Summer Olympics. Even though they would be held on the other side of the Iron Curtain in Munich, Germany, grainy video would stream into the West.
I sat in front of our console television in San Antonio, Texas, long after midnight, waiting for the wrestling events to start. We were sending our greatest wrestler of all time, Dan Gable, to represent the United States. Was there any Soviet athlete who could beat him? He did not disappoint, winning Gold without a single point being scored against him. It’s a feat that has never been duplicated since. It was exhilarating.
My interest in the Soviet Union started with being curled up under an Elementary school desk during “nuclear bomb drills”. I was taught that the Soviets were the “bad guys” who only wanted to kill us. So, when they marched in during the opening ceremonies, they seemed to be quite normal. My opinions started to change as the Olympics proceeded. It is a little like the opinions between Jews and Christians are progressing today. We are beginning to see each other with new eyes.
The Soviets introduced us to the world’s strongest man, Vasily Alexeev, the world’s fastest human, Valeriy Borzov, and the new darling of women’s gymnastics, Olga Korbut. Jewish American swimmer Mark Spitz dominated the pool. His face and seven dangling gold medals were pasted everywhere, including on a box of Wheaties, the breakfast of champions. The finals of men’s basketball (USA vs USSR) had the most controversial finish in the history of the sport.
The competition was terrific. Until I met the REAL “bad guys”.
I didn’t realize this would be the first of many “surreal moments” where Palestinians were concerned. I was only 13 and had never heard the words “Palestinian terrorist” before. Who were they? What did they want? Couldn’t they go away and let the world experience a little joy?
Eight gunmen of the Palestinian terror group Black September stormed into the Israeli athlete’s apartment at the Olympic village, shooting two dead and taking nine hostages. West German police responded with a bungled rescue operation in which all nine hostages were killed, along with five of the eight hostage-takers and a police officer. The three remaining hostage-takers were captured but released weeks later in an exchange when gunmen hijacked a Lufthansa plane on October 29, 1972, and demanded their release. Do you see a pattern starting to emerge?
A dark education began for me that day.
I learned about evil. I learned about hostages. And for the next 50 years, I would learn that Palestinians will sink to unfathomable depths of darkness. Behind all the rhetoric and negotiation, they still had only one goal: to kill and take hostages.
What was to be the greatest two weeks of my early teenage life ended with newscaster Jim McCay saying these words: “Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized. Our worst fears have been realized tonight … They’re all gone.”
The following year, I watched the Yom Kippur War from across the pond. Then, the Ma’alot Massacre in 1974, where Palestinians hijacked a school bus and took hostages. The attack ended in the deaths of 25 hostages, including 22 children.
I said “Again? Seriously?” when the Palestinian Liberation Front hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. During the hijacking, an elderly American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was killed and thrown overboard. I remember thinking, “What a bunch of cowards”. They threw a Senior Citizen in a wheelchair overboard. Like the 1972 Olympic athletes, he was trying to celebrate something good: his 36th wedding anniversary. Pitiful!
Palestinians kill people and take hostages. It’s what they do.
I had hope when I saw President Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, and Ehud Barak shaking hands in 2000. Was it finally over? Can everyone get back to living life again? Nope.
The next decade saw the Second Intifada, in which suicide bombers targeted buses, restaurants, and public gatherings, the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing, the Passover Massacre in 2002, and decades of shootings, stabbings, kidnappings, and hijackings.
My Solution For Peace Also Comes From The 1972 Olympic Games.
Be it far from me, an American gentile, to offer advice to Israel and the Jewish people. But for 53 years, I have watched Palestinians kill people and take hostages. It’s what they do.
Learn from a Soviet.
Another member of the 1972 US Olympic wrestling team was a massive giant named Chris Taylor. At 412 pounds (187 kg), he was the heaviest Olympian ever. Opponents tried to defeat him by strategizing, dancing around to tire him out, making feints and dodges, and doing everything but what needed to be done.
The West German wrestler, Wilfried Dietrich, weighed only 287 pounds. But he knew there was only one way to defeat this mountain of a man. It was the same strategy David used against Goliath: run to meet him. Dietrich gave him a pre-match hug, saying “good luck” in broken English. He didn’t care about Taylor. He wanted to see if he could lock his hands around this colossus. He couldn’t. Taylor was too massive. It didn’t matter to a focused warrior with the heart of a lion.
What Dietrich did next is forever known as “the throw heard around the world.”
Dear Israel, Just Throw It!
What happened in Munich is precisely what happened at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th. People of all kinds gathered to celebrate in goodwill and have fun. The Palestinians interrupted it by doing what they have done best for over 50 years: killing people and taking hostages.
It’s a tale as old as the Torah itself.
“The Canaanite king of Arad lived in the Southern Desert of Canaan, and when he heard that the Israelites were on their way to the village of Atharim, he attacked and took some of them hostage.” Numbers 21:1
Will “making a deal” finally stop the Palestinians from killing people and taking hostages? Nope. Will bobbing and weaving wear them out? Nope. Will strategizing about moves and countermoves end the terror? Nope.
There is only one proper solution for peace in Israel: Just Throw It!
The match must end with the Palestinians on their backs in complete defeat. There are no “ties” in Olympic wrestling. Someone must emerge victorious. And they will wrestle until someone does, regardless of how long it takes.
Now is the time for Israel to have its hand raised in victory. HaShem has raised a banner over His people and His land. Every wrestling match starts with a “two-competitor solution”. But there is only room for one victor on the mat. Only one gold medal. And only one champion.
You know what to do, Israel. Jacob wrestled. It’s your turn.
Now, how can we get the Israeli flag on a box of Wheaties, the breakfast of champions?
