Seventeen years have passed and it is as if it was yesterday. We - my entire family and countless Israelis - will never forget it. Seventeen years have passed since Shimon Mizrahi took his team to play in the European Final Four on the eve of Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron).
Mizrahi, Mr. All-Powerful, whose power in FIBA was greater then than it is now, did not get them to move the tipoff time. It is not known whether he threatened that his team would not engage in the pleasure of sport, at the same time that mothers and fathers are crying over their sons, men and women are crying over their loved ones, brothers and sisters are crying over their siblings, boys and girls are crying over their parents and boyfriends and girlfriends are crying over who has died on behalf of Israel. At the same time that the whole of Israel stands at attention, torn, over the thousands of its dead, his players were jumping for rebounds, celebrating every basket they scored. The order of priorities was clear.
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Mizrahi knew that under the same dubious banner of "Zionism," Maccabi Tel Aviv, which earned millions of shekels from the state's coffers before and since that evening, could sell the idea to an Israeli Broadcast Authority addicted to his team that Memorial Day had not started in France before tipoff time. It was if they died in battles for Alsace-Lorraine, and not Bab el-Wad, Mitla Pass, Ammunition Hill, the Chinese Farm or Beaufort.
Maybe Maccabi won, maybe it lost; the question is irrelevant. As far as I am concerned, and as far as any of my family or some lifelong friends are concerned, Maccabi lost on that cursed night. And the person at the top of the club lost all respect, sympathy and any true interest in his team's results. Whether Maccabi wins the title this year or not, whether it losses by 20 points or wins by 60, it would be the same for us.
The current polemic surrounding the appearances of the private individuals Avram Grant and Yossi Benayoun in the Champions League semifinal on Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day ignored that terrible night on which the national champion, the Israeli representative in the competition, played at the same time the Memorial Day siren sounded. Seventeen years have passed, the seventh Final Four for Maccabi since then, and we have not heard a full and honest apology. On Sunday, if they win the title, the masses will go out to celebrate in the city squares. On Wednesday, we will be going to the cemeteries. Have a nice week.
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