The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Out of Bounds
In tennis, “love” means zero. The United Arab Emirates may be finding out that “hate” means the same thing. Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a bit of sporting news that makes us proud to work for The Wall Street Journal:
The Wall Street Journal Europe revoked its sponsorship of a Dubai women’s tennis tournament after the United Arab Emirates declined to issue an entry visa to an Israeli player.
At a news conference in Dubai, one of the emirates, tournament organizers said they were concerned that the presence of the player, Shahar Peer, might spur protests or security problems because of Israel’s incursion into Gaza. The Journal Europe said in a statement that “The Wall Street Journal’s editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal’s editorial direction.”
The Journal Europe also plans to pull a special tennis-themed advertising section scheduled for Monday and is withdrawing its sponsorship of a related men’s tennis tournament beginning next week in Dubai.
One other media outlet apparently remains a sponsor of the Emirates’ restricted tourney. The Journal reports that “Newsweek declined to comment.” This despite what the New York Times recently called the magazine’s reinvention “to fashion an opinionated take on events.”
London’s Guardian reports that a male Israeli player, Andy Ram, “is also likely to be denied a visa to compete in next week’s men’s tournament” and that professional tennis’s governing bodies “are poised to pull out of the country in a move that could have far reaching consequences for the country’s growing status as a major player in world sport.”
This sort of clash between sports and politics is nothing new; one thinks of the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, or of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Jews were barred from competing on the German team. This sort of dispute arises domestically, too. The National Football League originally planned to hold the 1993 Super Bowl in Arizona, but moved it to California because the Grand Canyon State did not have an official Martin Luther King holiday.
The Emirates’ decision to refuse entry to the Israeli athletes should not have been a surprise. Almost all Arab countries, as well as some non-Arab Muslim ones, have policies of refusing entry to visitors carrying Israeli passports, or even to non-Israelis whose passports show evidence of having visited Israel. If the NFL could boycott Arizona over the King holiday, why don’t all international sports organizations shun countries that discriminate against athletes from the Jewish state?
And by the way, where is President Obama on this? In his Inaugural Address, Obama mentioned that his own father “less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant” in the city where he was taking the oath of office. For the president who promised to build bridges to the Arab and Muslim worlds, this would seem an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that traffic on such spans moves in both directions.
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