The Games of Brotherhood

Unless you happen to be Iranian and a swimmer on their Olympic team. And then, the issue is not brotherhood, but who will be in the pool.

Apparently, Iranian’s swimmer has decided that being separated from the Israeli swimmer by five lanes is not enough and has decided to pull out of the competition.

Iranian swimmer Mohammed Alirezaei left his lane empty instead of swimming
against Israel’s Tom Be’eri, who finished fourth. He set a new Israeli record
with a 1.02:42 time in the 100-meter breaststroke category.

That’s ok, actually because it just proves our point. If they can’t even get in the water with us…they can’t be very brave in anything else. They may have a madman for president, but clearly they have little in the way of courage and guts. Guts is what it takes to compete, not to surrender. Courage is what it takes for a young man to reach inside himself and compete after being informed of the tragic and sudden death of his father.

Israel’s Olympic team may or may not come home with any medals, but for Israel, that isn’t the measure of greatness because unlike the Iranians, we understand that we are there to share in the brotherhood of man. One can argue about playing on the Sabbath and participating during the nine days of Av and the fast of Tisha B’Av, but when it comes down to it, what is telling on a national level is that we did our best and fell before no one.

Iranian’s swimmer can’t make that claim when he couldn’t even manage to get in the water.

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