On the couch / When sports and politics meet, play through

The man of the next moment who takes the helm at the White House this Tuesday says in his autobiography, ?Dreams from My Father,? ?I realized then .. . that I was a heretic. Or worse − for even a heretic must believe in something, if nothing more than the truth of his own doubt.? Or, as I heard a Turkish professor saying on the BBC, ?the only thing on which you can depend is uncertainty.?

Then, there?s Robert Frost?s chastisement of a liberal as, ?someone who can?t even take his own side in an argument.? The president-elect would rebut that, saying, ?Yes, he can!?

But this is a time when many liberals find themselves under severe stress. Dissent is not easily brooked; a country which used to pride itself on a myriad diversity of views, and absolutely expected challenging questions about every sort of policy, now has 98 percent of people demanding 100 percent commitment. Woe betide anyone who strays from the line − even if you?re as popular, pleasant, intelligent and good-looking as Channel 2?s Yonit Levy.

The number 98 percent, of course, is from one segment of the population only − but then didn?t Avigdor Lieberman, a paragon of democracy, say a democracy has to protect itself from an irredentist minority? Perhaps that twisted thought is what prompted the awful decision by the Israel Football Association to penalize Bnei Sakhnin and other Arab clubs by banning soccer matches in Arab towns and villages.

At the height of the Vietnam War, Arthur Miller sent a famous telegram to President Lyndon Johnson. The playwright had been invited to a gala event. He refused, saying, ?When the guns boom, the arts die.? Perhaps, say some, when the guns boom, sports should die as well.

After adopting that approach for the first couple of weeks of the war, the Israel Football Association decided on the resumption of all league soccer this weekend. The IFA, however, made Sakhnin an exception among all the top league clubs, barring them from playing at their home Doha Stadium.

In the view of sagacious Bnei Sakhnin spokesman Mundar Haleleih, this amounted to, ?unjustly penalizing the club which is the symbol of coexistence in this country between Jews and Arabs.? It certainly seemed to imply that Sakhnin is Ankara, and Doha Stadium the court of the Turk Telecom club where last week hundreds of menacing fans had lay in wait for the hapless Bnei Hasharon basketball players?

In these challenging times, most people are not really interested in accurate or truthful reporting. Instead, they want to be reconfirmed in their ideas and in their political and moral positions. Journalists often do less reporting and more outrage. So, the IFA decision was perhaps not all that unexpected given that when, on the first weekend of the war, tens of thousands turned out in Sakhnin not for a soccer match, but to demonstrate against the war. Reports focused entirely on whether this justified arguments that Arab Israelis are a fifth column and not on the fact that a legitimate anti-war protest had gone off peacefully.

Happily, Bnei Sakhnin are not liberal wimps in the Frost mode. Firmly, they held their ground against the discrimination. And happily, eventually the police demonstrated sensitivity, allowing tomorrow?s key match against Hakoach Ramat Gan to be played in Sakhnin.

That?s welcome news. More even than a symbol of coexistence, Sakhnin offers a profound challenge not only to the Jewish majority, but as much to their own firebrand politicians. Their challenge in soccer parlance is that, ?while we do not forgo our heritage and our links with the Palestinian people, as citizens of Israel we want, above all, to be accepted in the center of the Israeli national pitch, not always, as now, relegated beyond the sidelines.?

Whatever the result of tomorrow?s critical relegation battle, we have good reason to trust in Bnei Sakhnin on the pitch, and in their fervent fans off it, to provide a useful antidote to all the vitriol, and all the Arab-Jewish charges and counter-charges that have dominated the past three weeks.

Abandoning the court,but not the sport

Back to the sordid incident in Turkey, the liberal in me kicks in on the question of whether Bnei Hasharon could have done anything else to handle their frightening ordeal. We?re admittedly in uncharted waters. Sports events have been canceled or postponed for political and security reasons, but I unsuccessfully rack my memory to recall a case in which a team has been forced to abandon the field of play due to political protest from fans.

But that?s what happened when the men from Bnei Hasharon had to flee the wrath of hundreds in a fist-pumping, explosive Ankara mob yelling, ?Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine!? Only 500 fans had been let into the arena; they were subject to intense searches, but it wasn?t enough. Police made the mistake of not confiscating shoes.Before the game could begin, there were angry chants of ?Israeli killers,? smuggled Palestinian flags were unfurled and, reminiscent of what happened to President Bush in Baghdad, footwear rained down from the stands.

Both teams were rushed into the locker rooms while the police struggled to regain control of the stadium. Bnei Hasharon captain Meir Tapiro spoke about the fear and chaos.

?The fans raced on to the court and ran towards us like madmen,? he said. ?It was really scary.?

Ninety minutes later the arena was successfully cleared, but by now, the Israeli club had, despite the appeals of the refs, no desire to play. The game was ruled a forfeit and a 20-0 loss recorded.

It?s easy to sympathize with Bnei Sharon, the Cinderellas of top-flight Israeli basketball; before Ankara they had strung together a series of fine victories. Now instead of being high-flying princesses they seem to have lost heart.

One?s heart goes out to them. But, one wonders whether their understandable anguish is best served by their chairman describing the European basketball authorities dumping on them a huge ?(E50,000?) fine for refusing to play as ?a victory for the terrorists?.

Given the extenuating circumstances, there?s definitely room for appealing the fine, and while one doesn?t want to pronounce judgment on guys in an extremely tight spot, one also can?t help but wonder whether, once the arena was cleared, they shouldn?t have taken to the court.After all, national battles are fought on various fronts. Those commentators who are now encouraging small Israeli clubs to turn inward and to say, What?s the point of playing in Europe if we?re not wanted, are being dangerously narrow. Surely they don?t want to help promote a revival of the dire situation where Israeli sport was isolated and boycotted.

Sport is meant inter alia to serve as a diversion. So, if this rush of hostility is just too gloomy, why not be cheered by the cutest sporting moment to emerge from the sports arena over the past week?First, there was Spain?s Fernando Verdasco, a jolly − and jolly good-looking − character. In the semi-final of the Brisbane tennis open, the third seed ?(Spain?s hero in their Davis Cup triumph last year?) made short work of France?s Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2 6-1 despite having his concentration momentarily broken by a female fan who asked him to marry her.

?I told her it?s not the moment right now,? Fernando joked. ?I am focusing on tennis. Maybe if I get married it is a worse [distraction]. I told her I need time.?

Sadly, Fernando was still apparently sufficiently distracted to lose out in the final in three sets to the Czech, Radek Stepanek.