Accusations against World Cup Soccer referee Francois Letexier having connections to Mossad, Israel’s intelligence apparatus, are too ludicrous to merit rebuttal. Egypt (whose coach waved the Palestinian flag after its victory over Australia on July 3) lost fair and square to Argentina on July 7. Had there been a Jewish conspiracy, why hadn’t Israel even qualified for the tournament?
But the fact that the Egyptian coach, Hossam Hassan, displayed the Palestinian flag after his team’s victory over Australia does merit discussion. It stands as a symbol of the deep roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel was the target of demonization long before the Gaza war, proving its very existence is the real grievance of its critics (as opposed to the goal of a Palestinian state).
What does it mean that an Egyptian coach would wave a flag other than that of his own country? Hassan’s gesture was in the spirit of the pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser (who ruled Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970). Though Nasser was the president of Egypt, he considered the position secondary to his role as head of the entire Middle East. Nasser believed not in the integrity of the Arab states, but an entire Arab world stretching from Northwest Africa to the Near East of Asia. He even established the United Arab Republic in 1958, in which he aligned with Syria, forming a nationalist entity which lasted until 1961 and included Yemen as an unofficial member.
Yes, the Palestinian cause was paramount to Nasser. But it’s important to understand that, to Nasser, the Palestinian cause was a pan-Arab cause. The Palestinian flag being flown by an Egyptian soccer coach is analogous to the Palestinian cause being promoted by an Egyptian presiding over the United Arab Republic. Nasserism was a movement embraced throughout the Arab states, emulated by Hafez al-Assad of Syria and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Both dictators fancied themselves not as heads of particular states, but as heads of an entire Arab region of the world (in conformity with the communist Ba’ath Party to which they belonged in their respective countries).
Don’t get me wrong. This is not to belittle Palestinian nationalism. A lasting peace in the Middle East must include statehood for Palestinian Arabs. But when the coach of the Egyptian soccer team, supposedly representing his own country, waves a foreign flag with nonchalance, there is an explanation deeper than mere appearance. To Hassan, Egyptian pride and Palestinian nationalism are interchangeable.
Hossam Hassan (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
It could be argued that pan-Arabism is the past. And the argument is valid. Notwithstanding tension in the Middle East, pan-Arabism (specifically Nasserism) is no longer a driving force. But the coach of Egypt’s soccer team hoisting the Palestinian flag is a reminder that such sentiment is by no means extinct.
Moreover, what is not extinct and which is very much alive is the aim to destroy the Jewish state (a central tenet of yesteryear’s Nasserism). Look no further than the normalization of Hamas in Gaza and/or Hezbollah in Lebanon. Both entities exist to destroy Israel and are committed to ridding the Middle East of the Jewish state. Efforts to annihilate the Jewish state have very much survived Nasser.
Politics rearing its head in sports is not unprecedented. Those of us old enough to remember the Munich Olympics in 1972 know that much. Fortunately, organized sports have seen no such tragedy since Munich. But that the outcome of a soccer game can be construed as a plot by Israel is telling of a world in which hate still brews in the sports world (and elsewhere).
John O’Neill of Allen Park writes a twice-weekly political column.
John O’Neill