Israel barred from international sports event - Iran brags

Iran's news agencies are reporting that Iran successfully blackmailed the International Military Sports Council (CISM) from allowing Israel to join:

Iran's efforts to establish a single stance among Islamic countries eventually succeeded in preventing the Zionist regime of Israel from joining the International Military Sports Council (CISM).

Speaking to FNA here on Sunday, General Mohammad Ali Sabour , a member of the presiding board of the International Military Sports Council, said Israel strives to attend international events and bodies in a bid to buy recognition for its illegitimate entity.

"The Zionist regime, backed by certain western countries, launched extensive efforts in 2001 to take part in the world armies' Olympic games," he said, adding, "But Israel's pressures were defused due to solidarity of the Islamic countries which had been created through the extensive consultations of Iran, and thus, they (Israeli regime and its western supporters) could not achieve their goal."

The General said that following the said efforts by the Israeli regime, Iran, supported and accompanied by Islamic countries, threatened to withdraw from CISM.

"And the officials of the International Military Sports Council were eventually made to oppose Israel's membership in the council, arguing that these games are meant to provide a place for peace and tranquility while the Zionist regime's participation would cause tension and instability of these games," he concluded.

Let's take a look at some of the CISM's goals and principles:

The International Military Sports Council, known by its acronym "CISM", is an international sports association composed of the armed forces of member nations accepted by the General Assembly. CISM is open to the armed forces of all nations.

The aims of CISM are to develop friendly relations between the Armed Forces of member nations, promote physical education and sports activities, provide mutual technical assistance, support less privileged members in the name of friendship and solidarity, contribute towards the balanced and harmonious development of military personnel, and contribute to the international effort for universal peace.

This ideal is encapsulated in the CISM motto "FRIENDSHIP THROUGH SPORT".

A. CISM is an apolitical organization which fosters, through sport, friendship between military athletes to promote international harmony.
B. CISM values sport in the Armed Forces as an essential pillar of international sport and universal peace.
C. CISM adheres to the universal principles of “mens sana in corpore sano”, and “all human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and in rights”, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the United Nations Charter.
D. CISM rejects all forms of discrimination towards a nation or a person on the basis of race, religion, political belief, and any other discriminatory practice.

Putting these two together, one can see that the CISM is blatantly hypocritical in allowing a single nation, by its own admission, to exclude another nation in violation of its own published principles.

The CISM has 128 member nations, and it is telling that none of them are willing to stand up against Iran in its bullying tactics. I don't think that any Israelis are losing any sleep over what is essentially yet another bunch of hypocrites running obscure sporting events, but it shows that even today, with its explicit calls for genocide, Iran is a much more esteemed member of the family of nations than Israel is.