The more things change...

The following article is part of a blogburst - a simultaneous and cross-linked posting of many blogs on the same theme. This blogburst commemorates the Munich Olympics Massacre which began in the dawn hour of September 5th, 1972. Go to The Index of the Munich Massacre Blogburst to find links to all the other articles.

At 5:00 AM, September 5th, 1972, a seminal event in the development of modern terrorism took place.

Eight Palestinian terrorists invaded the site of the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. They killed and took hostage eleven Israeli athletes competing in the Games, demanding the release of over 200 imprisoned Arabs and 2 German terrorists. Over the next few tension-filled days, all the hostages and some of the terrorists were killed, and the remaining terrorists escaped, mostly due to incompetence and perfidy of the German government. The Olympic Committee made a controversial decision to continue the Games, and has never participated in any memorial for the slain athletes. Eventually almost all of the remaining terrorists were hunted down and killed by Israeli agents, directed by then Prime Minister Golda Meir.

The Libyan Connection. Colonel Muammar Qaddafi had more than a hand in the plot. Boaz Ganor of ICT reports that "Qaddafi awarded Arafat $5 million in recognition of the massacre of Israel athletes carried out by Arafat’s men at the Munich Olympics. And Daniel Pipes has noted that Qaddafi supplied the both means and the ends, so to speak.

Qadhdhafi provides terrorists with money, weapons, training, and false documents. The diplomatic pouches and secure cables of Libyan embassies afford an invaluable network for supplies and information. The Palestinians who killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics received their weapons through the Libyan diplomatic pouch (and those killed by the West German police received state funerals in Libya).

The French Connection. In the Summer 1999 issue of Foreign Policy, there was an article by Bruce Hoffman called Is Europe Soft on Terrorism? In it, he discusses the complicity of the French government in the initial escape of Abu Daoud.

Terrorism has long been a source of friction between the United States and Europe. During the 1970s and 1980s, for example, it was not unusual for European governments to cut secret deals with terrorists. In exchange for the terrorists' agreement not to strike within these countries' borders or target their citizens, European authorities often turned a blind eye to activities that would otherwise have invited arrest and imprisonment. Consequently, extradition requests were frequently ignored. Captured terrorists often managed to escape from custody. Routine border-control procedures were conveniently ignored to allow terrorists to travel freely across international frontiers. Perhaps the best-known instance of this behavior occurred in 1977 when French counterespionage agents arrested Muhammad Daoud Audeh—alias Abu Daoud—the reputed mastermind behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were seized and murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Both Israel and West Germany immediately requested Audeh's extradition. France, however, stonewalled, prevaricated, and then set him free, not wishing to incur the wrath of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and invite possible terrorist reprisal.

Euroweenies, indeed.

* * *

Remember them.

Ronnie Schreiber has posted the names of the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered, along with a link to their photos. This site has a short bio on each of them.

Moshe Weinberg - wrestling referee
Died at the age of 33. He was an outstanding wrestler with Hapoel Haifa and the Israeli national team. He was the youth and adult Greek-Roman style champion for 8 years. He also served as the coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv and the Israeli national team.

Eliezer Halffin - wrestler
Died at the age of 24. He was born in the Soviet Union where he spent 11 years specializing in free-style, light weight wrestling. He achieved fourth place in the Soviet national youth championships. Following immigration to Israel, he was a leading wrestler with Hapoel Tel Aviv and the Israeli national team. He finished 12th in the world free-style championships.

Mark Slavin – wrestler
Died at the age of 18. He was born in the Soviet Union where he recorded a number of notable achievements. In February 1972, he won the Soviet Roman-Greek style wrestling championships. In May of that year, he immigrated to Israel and joined Hapoel Tel Aviv and the Israeli Olympic team.

Ze'ev Friedman - weight lifter
Died at the age of 28. He immigrated to Israel in 1960. He began his sporting career as a gymnast but was drawn to weightlifting. He was a member of Hapoel Kiryat Haim and was the Israeli rooster-weight weightlifting champion for 7 years. In 1969, he achieved 7th place in the world championships in Warsaw and third place in the Manila Games in 1971. He finished 12th at the Munich Olympic Games, breaking 3 Israeli records in the process.

Joseph Romano -weight lifter
Died at the age of 32. He was born in Libya, and he was a member of the Israeli national team and champion of Israel for 10 years. In the last years of his life, he acted as coach and manager of the weightlifting department of Hapoel Tel Aviv where he was a member for 14 years.

Kahat Shor - shooting coach
Died at the age of 53. He was born in Romania and was a member of Hapoel Tel Aviv. He chalked up many impressive achievements in the field of shooting and became coach at Hapoel Tel Aviv. He was appointed shooting coach of the Israeli national team for the Asian Games in Bangkok and prepared the national Olympic team for the 20th Olympiad in Munich.

David Berger - weight lifter
Died at the age of 28. He was born in the United States where he was national youth middleweight weightlifting champion. After immigrating to Israel, he joined Maccabi Tel Aviv and won the Israeli national middle heavyweight championships. He won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Manilla.

Joseph Gottfreund - wrestling referee
Died at the age of 40. He was born in Romania, where he recorded several notable achievements as a wrestler. After immigrating to Israel, he joined Hapoel Jerusalem and was responsible for the heavy athletics department at the club. He completed an international referee's course and recorded a number of impressive achievements as a wrestling referee, refereeing at the 1968 Tokyo Olympics and the world championships in India and Bulgaria before being invited by the Olympic Committee to be a referee at the Munich Games.

Andrei Schpitzer - fencing referee
Died at the age of 27. He was born in Romania, where he began his fencing career. Following immigration to Israel, he joined the fencing section at Maccabi Ramat Gan where he had an outstanding career. He ran the fencing course at the Wingate Institute coaches' school and was appointed Israeli national fencing team coach.

Amitsur Shapira - athletics coach

Died at the age of 40. He was born in Israel, and was one of the top short distance runners in Israel in the 1950s. He qualified as a physical education teacher and became an athletics coach. He devoted much of his time to training young athletes, his most notable achievement being the discovery of Esther Roth-Sachmorov. He coached Roth-Sachmorov during the last six years of his life and helped her to many achievements and to world fame.

Yaakov Springer - weightlifting referee
Died at the age of 50. He was born in Poland, where he was leading wrestler and weight lifter, representing his country in many competitions. When he immigrated to Israel in 1956 he devoted himself to teaching physical education in Jaffa and Bat-Yam. He was appointed Israeli national weightlifting coach and trained referees. He achieved an international reputation as a referee. The Munich Games were the fifth Olympiad he attended as referee.

Zichronam l'vracha (may their memory be a blessing).