Israel Athletics

Gali Horev grew up in Israel dreaming of becoming an American basketball star. Nine months ago, the dream became a possibility when he and his father, Jacob Horev, moved to Southern California. The purpose of the move was solely to get Horev the necessary exposure to earn a scholarship to an American college. "If Gali doesn't get the scholarship he wants," Jacob Horev said, "then we probably will get on the first plane back to Israel.

Lenny Krayzelburg is going to swim at the Maccabiah Games next month in Israel. Krayzelburg's mother very much wants him to stay home. Krayzelburg's father very much wants his son to go. The Maccabiah Games are sometimes called the Jewish Olympics. The Games are held every four years in Israel. Jewish athletes from around the world come to compete and also to fill their souls with a sense of their heritage.

The sanctity and serenity of the Olympic Games were split early in the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, when Palestinian commandos, some dressed as athletes, scaled an eight-foot wire fence in the Olympic athletes' village at Munich, carrying bags stuffed with submachine guns. The eight men advanced on Building 31, which housed the men in the Israeli delegation. At 4:55 a.m. Moshe Weinberg, the Israeli wrestling coach, answered a knock on his door.

Israel captured the European basketball championship for the first time in 20 years Sunday, and, for a few hours, the nation forgot its bloody fight with the Palestinians as tens of thousands of fans danced in the streets and chanted, "We are the champions!" Even as Israelis rejoiced, however, the army carried out missile strikes on Palestinian security targets in the Gaza Strip.

Women's judo. Second place in women's judo. It was not much. It was not enough. Nothing would ever be enough. But for Uri Afek, who was there on Sept. 6, 1972, when terrorists infiltrated the Olympic village in Munich and executed 11 of his countrymen, it was a silver medal worth its weight in gold. "We will never forget," said Afek, chief of Israel's 31-athlete delegation to the 25thSummer Olympics here.

The phone was ringing. I awoke groggily to answer it. Any time you answer the phone at 6:30 in the morning, you're not going to like what you hear. But, even by 6:30 a.m. standards, this was terrible. "Hello," said a strange voice on the other end. "This is Joe Alex Morris in the Bonn bureau. Now, on that guerrilla break-in down there, are you going to need any help?" I shook my head to clear the cobwebs out. I struggled to remember where I was. Ah, yes, in Munich. For the Olympics.

Images collide in Uri Afek's head as he strolls through the seaside Olympic Village. He sees a performance in Germany of "Fiddler on the Roof" 20 years ago, the preface to disaster. He sees the heart-stopping instant of this Spanish summer when a wiry sabra wins the first Olympic medal in Israeli history. And he sees the excitement at Lod Airport next Monday when Israel will welcome its athletes home from Barcelona.

Egypt and Israel tied, 17-17, in the World Cup team handball championships at Salzburg, Austria. It was the first athletic competition ever between the former enemies.

Once again, here's proof that timing is everything. After never having won an Olympic medal, Israel got its first Thursday night in the women's half-middleweight class of judo when Yael Arad took the silver. It was a moment greeted with deep emotion and great joy, both at the venue and in Israel. The next night, 22-year-old judo competitor Shay Oren Smadga of Israel earned a bronze in the men's lightweight division.

To remember the dead is to honor their memory, and as a light rain began to fall Tuesday a white-bearded rabbi leaned into the wind and intoned the words of the Kaddish, the prayer that Jews have recited for centuries as a passage of mourning. In solemn ceremonies, hundreds of people gathered in the courtyard of a Sydney school to remember and to dedicate a monument to the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed by Arab terrorists at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

The fields are rocky and uneven, the hot dogs are strictly kosher, and the ballplayers sometimes struggle to keep their prayer shawls in place as they pitch. Improbable as it seems, baseball, the all-American pastime already popular in Japan, Latin America and parts of Europe, is making inroads in Israel.

The sanctity and serenity of the Olympic Games were split early in the morning of Sept. 5, 1972, when Palestinian commandos, some dressed as athletes, scaled an eight-foot wire fence in the Olympic athletes' village at Munich, carrying bags stuffed with submachine guns. The eight men advanced on Building 31, which housed the men in the Israeli delegation. At 4:55 a.m. Moshe Weinberg, the Israeli wrestling coach, answered a knock on his door.

Lessons in tolerance are needed to quell the rightist violence gripping Germany, an official said Friday during a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics. The 11 Israelis killed by Arab terrorists were remembered by their relatives, representatives of the Israeli Embassy and German officials. During the commemoration, Munich's Deputy Mayor Christian Ude said vigilance is still necessary to "resist anti-Semitism and hate of foreigners."

Images collide in Uri Afek's head as he strolls through the seaside Olympic Village. He sees a performance in Germany of "Fiddler on the Roof" 20 years ago, the preface to disaster. He sees the heart-stopping instant of this Spanish summer when a wiry sabra wins the first Olympic medal in Israeli history. And he sees the excitement at Lod Airport next Monday when Israel will welcome its athletes home from Barcelona.

Once again, here's proof that timing is everything. After never having won an Olympic medal, Israel got its first Thursday night in the women's half-middleweight class of judo when Yael Arad took the silver. It was a moment greeted with deep emotion and great joy, both at the venue and in Israel. The next night, 22-year-old judo competitor Shay Oren Smadga of Israel earned a bronze in the men's lightweight division.

Israel will ask the International Tennis Federation to postpone its Davis Cup match against France because of the Persian Gulf War. The first-round world group competition is due to take place Feb. 1-3 in Marseilles.

Seven Davis Cup first-round series, including the world-group matches between France and Israel, were postponed Monday because of the war in the Persian Gulf. The International Tennis Federation also announced that the series between defending champion United States and Mexico is under review for security reasons but remains scheduled Feb. 1-3 in Mexico City.

Women's judo. Second place in women's judo. It was not much. It was not enough. Nothing would ever be enough. But for Uri Afek, who was there on Sept. 6, 1972, when terrorists infiltrated the Olympic village in Munich and executed 11 of his countrymen, it was a silver medal worth its weight in gold. "We will never forget," said Afek, chief of Israel's 31-athlete delegation to the 25thSummer Olympics here.

Egypt and Israel tied, 17-17, in the World Cup team handball championships at Salzburg, Austria. It was the first athletic competition ever between the former enemies.