Israel’s Davis Cup will play without fans

[Mark]

Israel will play with Sweden a first round Davis Cup match without any fans in Mamlo next month.Officials decided to play the match in the closed doors Because fear of demonstrations against Israel’s recent bombing of Gaza.

[AZZenny]

And they did play, and Israel won, but under great pressure. Andy Ram wrote in Ynet that there was massive, almost over-the-top security presence, and that the Israeli athletes were pretty much kept isolated out of fear by Swedish authorities that there'd be violent attacks as thousands of Swedes protested allowing Israelis to play.

This follows a recent call by a Palestinian leader to ban Israelis from all international sports.

It occurred to me after Dubai and now this that it may be a new strategy by jihadis -- no country wants to become the new Munich, and they won't want to have to spend hundreds of thousands of public dollars protecting a few tennis players or golfers or a basketball team. Just the credible threat of locally-whipped up violent demonstrations, if it happens consistently enough in the short run, may have the effect of turning sports associations slowly away from their internationalist position and their responsibility to Israeli athletes. It could discourage and irritate other athletes, too, and gradually get the sports world to separate itself into a high-profile defacto boycott.