In some ways, the world was much more hostile to Israel in the 70s than now. This article from 1976 describes a world where "international games are a precise barometer of international relations" (aggravated by the Soviet alliance with the Arab bloc that produced the "Zionism is Racism" resolution and later condemnations of Israel for rescuing its citizens from Entebbe):
In 1973 at the World University Games in Moscow, [Yuval Wischnitzer, an Israeli long-distance runner] was booed by 100,000 Russian fans. Since then the situation for an Israeli runner has worsened. He is not invited to France. Eastern Europe blacklists him totally. The Third World countries discouraged his application and last year in Stockholm he was able to run in the Dagens Nieter Games only by appearing under the colors of a Swedish club with no mention being made of his Israeli nationality. . . . At those same World University Games in Moscow in 1973 in which Wischnitzer was booed, Red Army soldiers destroyed Israeli flags in the stands during basketball games. In the 1974 Asian Games in Teheran, Esther Roth, Israel's premier runner, won a gold medal. The Chinese silver and bronze medal winners refused to shake her hand. In 1975 India refused the Israeli team a visa, thus preventing it from playing in the world table tennis championship in Calcutta. . . . Wischnitzer's body is not political but his world is. . . .
Wischnitzer says that after the Arab-sponsored U.N. resolution condemning Zionism as a form of racism he thought the next step was for Israel to be kicked out of the Olympics. He feels in any event that if the Olympics of 1976 happened to have been located in a Third World country Israel certainly wouldn't have been allowed to participate. "We're lucky the Olympics are in Montreal," he says.
At least in sports, Israel is treated with more normalcy than 25 years ago, although the International Olympic Committee has declined to attend any memorial for the slain athletes.
The Sports Illustrated article is worth reading in its entirety for its profiles of other athletes affected by Munich and poignant bits like this:
A physiologist in Israel discovered that until the age of 17 Israeli boys have among the best physiques in the world and are the kind of prime population from which great athletes come. But after 17 everything goes. The boys wear off their genius in the army. By the age of 21, it is too late for a young man to recover his promise.
UPDATE: "To mark the 30th anniversary of the tragedy at the Games of the XX Olympiad in 1972, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Dr Jacques Rogge, will tomorrow (6 September 2002) lead an IOC delegation to a ceremony of commemoration in Munich."
Good for you, buddy. Better late than never. I guess.
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