Olympic Politics
Efforts stall on shaming China for its policies.
Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
S
udan's president may soon be
the target of an arrest warrant
for the killings in Darfur, and
Iran was blasted by the United States
and Europe for testing the missiles it
threatens to fire at Israel.
But the international player accused
of complicity in both developments
appears to be getting a pass.
China has used its veto powers in
the U.N. Security Council to block
strong international action against the
regimes in Tehran and Khartoum and
has thrown them lifelines by continu-
ing oil and arms trade despite Western
attempts at isolation.
Jewish groups have taken lead roles
in drawing attention to China's poli-
cies and specifically sought to spotlight
the country's record in advance of this
summer's Olympic Games in Beijing. Yet
it appears as if China will suffer no sig-
nificant international sanction when the
Games open Aug. 8.
President Bush will be on hand for the
opening ceremony in Beijing, despite calls
from the American Jewish World Service
and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
that he stay home. Joining him will be
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who has
said that a nuclear Iran would be "a night-
mare" and that international unity, which
China has played a key role in blocking,
could make military action unnecessary.
Beijing Boycott Rejected
Calls for boycotts of the Olympics, some
with comparisons to Nazi Germany's host-
ing of the 1936 Berlin Games, also have
been rejected by mainstream Jewish orga-
nizations. The Anti-Defamation League
and the American Jewish Committee both
warned that challenging Beijing dur-
ing the Olympics would not produce the
anticipated results.
"The only thing that can affect China
is the big Western powers in unison, but
they will never do that:' Raphael Israeli, a
professor of Islamic and Chinese history at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told JTA.
"Only then would the Chinese do some-
American Jewish World Service members at a protest outside NBC in Manhattan.
thing as a gesture. But as long as there are
only declarations and protests, they have a
very thick skin.
They can absorb a lot if they don't have
to do anything practical."
Just a few months ago, the value of
the Olympics as a showcase for China's
exploding economic power seemed in
serious danger of running aground.
In addition to reports questioning
the quality of Beijing's air for elite ath-
letes, some tried to brand the Games the
"Genocide Olympics" because of Chinese
ties with Sudan. Jewish filmmaker Steven
Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser
to the Games, saying "conscience will not
allow me to continue with business as
usual." Riots in Chinese-occupied Tibet led
Elie Wiesel to organize fellow Nobel laure-
ates to protest China's brutal crackdown.
And a group of 185 Jewish leaders, mostly
rabbis, called on Jewish tourists to stay
away from Beijing.
As the Olympics draw closer, however,
even activists are quietly admitting they
are likely to go off without much of a
hitch.
"It's been frustrating;' said the executive
director of the Jewish Council for Public
Affairs, Rabbi Steve Gutow,"because it
doesn't appear we're being listened to."
With barely two weeks to go, Tibet and
Darfur have largely fallen from the head-
lines, replaced with profiles of athletes
and articles about the iconic architecture
China has built to showcase its capital city.
Few world leaders are skipping the open-
ing ceremonies, and those attending want
their visits to be free of politics.
"We believe that sports and politics
should not be mixed, especially at the
Olympic Games," said David Saranga,
Israel's consul for public affairs in New
York.
"While the situation regarding Iran's
nuclear program is a cause for grave con-
cern throughout the international com-
munity, the State of Israel firmly believes
that dialogue and diplomacy are the ideal
methods for resolving this issue."
Human Rights Issues
Jodi Jacobson, the director of advocacy
at the American Jewish World Service,
rejected the notion that sports and politics
could be so neatly separated.
"I think this president particularly
has not shown a willingness to stand up
when it comes to human rights issues;'
Jacobson said, referring to Bush. "And
it's problematic because we should not
be attending ceremonies like this on the
notion that they are politics-free because
they're not."
Having dropped its effort to get Bush
to stay home Aug. 8, the American
Jewish World Service has turned instead
to NBC, the exclusive broadcaster of
the Olympics in the United States. The
group has asked the network to commit
100 minutes of prime-time coverage
to Darfur during the Games, a number
dwarfed by the 1,000-plus hours NBC
plans to devote to the Olympics.
Last Wednesday, AJWS held a pro-
test with other Darfur groups at NBC's
Manhattan headquarters.
"The window before the Olympics
was the best time to pressure Jacobson
said. "Once they start it's like batting
away flies."
Thomas Neumann, the executive
director of the hawkish Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs, which has
taken a hard line on Iran, said Bush has
a broader set of interests with respect
to China.
Using the Olympics as a wedge,
Neumann said, "wouldn't be the wisest
posture."
On Peres' attendance, however, he was
less circumspect.
"Shimon Peres has always taken a softer
line than we have Neumann said. "We
would like to see him stay home."
The notion of broader interests is par-
ticularly true for Israel, which has enjoyed
a blossoming trade relationship with
China, reaching $5 billion this year.
It is precisely China's willingness to put
trade above principle, as evidenced in its
reluctance to scale back ties with Sudan
and Iran, that has opened the door to
close relations with Israel, according to
William Brown, a former U.S. ambassador
to Israel who also has been involved in
China issues.
Israel's relative small size also ensures
that any punitive action will damage the
Jewish state far more than China, the
world's most populous nation, Brown and
Israeli observers said.
"I don't want to stretch it as far as what
the Chinese reaction could be, but if they
got their back up it could be quite delete-
rious," Brown said. "There were frenzied
moments in Chinese history in our life-
time. When they're angry, they have the
capacity — there's a very strong sense of
nationalism in China." ❑
July 31 • 2008
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