Last night, the Israel’s under-21 soccer team defeated France 3-2. The win brings Israel to the top of UEFA’s Under-21 Championship qualifying Group 4.
Now if only the Israeli national team can repeat this achievement tonight.
Speaking of tonight’s game, French Jewish fans are reportedly torn over who to support.
While the French and Israeli national soccer teams gear up for Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifying match at Ramat Gan’s National Stadium, hundreds of French Jewish fans are torn over which side to support.Some 1,000 French Jews arrived earlier this week on a solidarity visit, and purchased more than 300 tickets for the game, but pangs of dual loyalty still torment the group.“There are a lot of French Jews who love Israel and want Israel to win,” said Dr. Joel Mergui, an organizer traveling with the group, “although I think that the majority will end up rooting for France.”
While I personally think that supporting France is a mistake (since France has not shown much loyalty towards Jews), I understand where these French Jews are coming from. Now contrast these feelings of loyalty for France with the feelings expressed by French Muslims at a soccer game a few years ago.
The threat to disrupt the national anthem brought back bad memories of a soccer game in the winter of 2001 at the beautiful Parc des Princes stadium in Paris. Pundits believed that game, the first time a French team went up against an Algerian team, played an important role in triggering Islamic extremism in France. Millions of French television viewers could not believe their eyes when their fellow citizens of the Muslim faith began booing when their adopted country’s anthem was played. The booing returned when the French scored a goal.
Many French officials and celebrities have arrived in Israel for the game (including a famous French-Jewish singer, who will sing the French national anthem – how’s that for loyalty?). One such official, Alain Calmat, is the former French minister of youth and sport..and articulator of the bloody obvious.
“I think it is mixed, whom the people will root for,” said Alain Calmat, the former French minister of youth and sport. “I hope that the French will be supported… I’m French, so I very much hope that France will win.”
Meanwhile, French sports writer Arnaud Hermant is perplexed that while Israelis are upset over French goalkeeper Barthez’s recent statements, Israelis have still treated the French nicely until now.
Hermant is afraid history is repeating itself. “I must say I am terribly surprised at the politics that have been created around the game,” he said. “In France, we wrote about the game in terms of sport. Here, it’s something else. It’s very strange that since we landed in Israel, people at the airport and the hotel have welcomed us very nicely. Even Barthez.
Yes, I can see why the French would find the notion of politeness to be a strange one.
Hermant also had some interesting statements about Barthez.
“Apparently something happened to him in front of the cameras,” Hermant said. “Maybe he lost his head.”
Maybe. And I would suspect you could find it up his own rear end.
