The sublime thing about sports is how they bring people together, cutting across racial and national lines to highlight the essence of our shared humanity. Unless you happen to represent the Jewish State in modern-day Europe. Then fuck you:

The two Israelis won gold and bronze medals at the European Cup fencing tournament for under 17s. Dana Stralinkov, 14, won gold and Alona Komarov, 13 won bronze. But the Austrian official in charge of arranging the national anthems played when the winners went on the podium said he could not locate the recording of 'Hatikvah'. After a few minutes of silence, the two teens sang the Israeli anthem themselves, with no backing track.

Good for those girls, who knew what to expect after the same thing happened in Sweden. The Austrian official who approached the podium actually said that he had the old Israeli national anthem available, which was an interesting rhetorical gambit insofar as it's the only thing he could have said to decrease his credibility.

You'd think everyday Austrians would be more grateful, given how Israeli engineers have single-handedly boosted their ski season by creating "snow refineries." I can understand how that kind of innovation would fail to sway the country's Muslim population - this is a community where the cause celebre is a teacher who distributed anti-Jewish pamphlets to students and where 44% of teachers believe that Muslims are inherently superior - but shouldn't the rest of the country be appreciative enough to keep track of even one Hatikva recording?

Maybe they lost it in a Swiss bank vault. Have they thought of checking there?

References:
* Israel fencing teens sing anthem lost by Austria [Jewish Chron]
* European sports officials rude to Israeli fencing champions [LA Examiner]
* Israeli snow brings early winter to Austrian ski resort [AFP]
* Muslim community hits back over banned teacher [Austrian Times]
* Austria: Study Finds 8% of Teachers in Islamic Schools Support Spreading Islam Through Violence, 44% Teach Their Kids They're Better Than Non-Muslims.... [Weasel Zippers]

Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Europe Coverage
* European Antisemitism
* Global Antisemitism