Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This story cracks me up:
An Iranian swimmer pulled out of the Olympic Games men's 100m breaststroke heats on Saturday, just minutes before he was due to compete against an Israeli rival.Mohammad Alirezaei's lane one was empty when the field left the starting blocks while Israel's Tom Beeri, starting in lane seven, finished fourth...
During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Iran's judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili, one of the country's prominent gold medal hopes, refused to compete against Ehud Vaks of Israel in the first round out of solidarity for the Palestinian cause.
Miresmaeili, twice a winner of the flyweight world title, still received a 5,000-dollar award the Iranian National Olympic Committee had promised to medal winners and he was hailed by former President Mohammad Khatami for his stance.
Now here's the punchline: the Iranian government had said he would be competing because he wasn't actually swimming against the Israeli:
There had been reports that Iran would compete against Israel at these Olympic Games for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.The Iranian National Olympic Committee (INOC) had said that as there was "no face-to-face situation" in swimming there would be no problem in attending the competition.
"Alirezaei swims in lane one and the representative of the Zionist regime (Israel) in lane seven, so they will not face each other," INOC secretary Ali Kafashian told ISNA news agency prior to the race.
Hilarious.
Politics
Comments
I just think it's funny how they show their solidarity... by forfeiting their right to compete!
You'd think that if they really had a bone to pick with Israel and the Israelis, that would motivate them to try and beat their opponent on a level playing field.
Wimps!!!
Posted by: Michael | August 12, 2008 9:56 AM
I think the idea was that as they refuse to recognise Isreal as a country, the refuse to recognise that anyone can come from there and therefore that anyone could compete from there.
Although why that stops them competing is completely beyond me...
Posted by: Lab Rat | August 12, 2008 10:02 AM
Ironically, just this week Iran's VP Esfandiar Rahim said Iran was friends with Israel. They need to import some Republicans so they can learn about message control.
Posted by: James Hanley | August 12, 2008 10:03 AM
Although the GOP has been less disciplined in recent days with their message control, this is still a wonderful idea. Let's round up as many Republicans as we can and ship them off to Iran.
Posted by: Zeno | August 12, 2008 10:20 AM
I'd be willing to bet being afraid to risk having your athletes thought of as "the Iranians defeated by Israeli Jews" is part of it as well.
Posted by: SeanH | August 12, 2008 10:23 AM
Cooties can swim?
Posted by: T. Bruce McNeely | August 12, 2008 10:45 AM
Or in other words, the Iranian state did not want to face the PR embarassment of their swimmer perhaps losing to an Israeli competitor.
Posted by: CHV | August 12, 2008 11:08 AM
"Let's round up as many Republicans as we can and ship them off to Iran."
They would love it there, a theocracy with ritualized, weekly and public capital punishment, institutionalized oppression of half of their population (women), no freedom of the press, no people complaining about silly civil rights, it's a republican's wet dream!
Posted by: Amar | August 12, 2008 11:21 AM
Amar, don't forget, there are no homosexuals in Iran.
Posted by: Abby Normal | August 12, 2008 11:33 AM
This is the country that seized an embassy and actually used the word hostages to describe the...well, hostgages. Even the Nazis didn't seize and hold embassy staff at the beginning of World War II. This is a country that stones people, and beheads people, and cuts off limbs, and has public hangings. This is a country with huge oil reserves, yet insists it needs nuclear power, and has mullahs chanting God is great, present at a weird conference where it was announced they had enriched uranium.
Posted by: soboco | August 12, 2008 1:09 PM
yea, its a great country alright... its a country that refuses to accept the zionist regime as it is known (rightfully by definition)...
it doesn't recognize israel as a country henceforth it wont compete against it. It doesn't behead people, so lets not forget you are ignorant in your statements, oh and also no cutting off of the limbs in Iran, Oh also it doesn't stone people, although according to both the bible, the quran and the Tanakh.
also nazi's may have not seized the embassy but they did burn the parliment... When it comes to persecution, the Nazi's have way more in common with the current Israeli regime and the american regime than the Iranian... read a book, it helps you sound less... well racist
Posted by: Outraged by jadudi ignorance | August 12, 2008 1:25 PM
Outraged:
Oh, come off it. While the Israeli government is hardly angels (and I do agree the way they're treating Palestinians is rather apartheid-esque), they're still the only stable democracy in the Middle East (Turkey doesn't qualify as stable IMHO and Iran has the mechanisms but not the freedoms). Israel makes me cringe, a lot. But they have freedoms that no one else in the area does. (Although the haredim are trying to drag Israel down to the level of the worst of the Islamic theocracies, so who knows if it'll last.)
Posted by: Brian X | August 12, 2008 1:38 PM
Uh huh. This, then, must be what they mean by "saving face."
Posted by: Sastra | August 12, 2008 1:42 PM
sobuco:
I think we need to try to be fair in our assessments of others. It is unfair to claim the country of Iran seized and held the hostages, a radical Muslim group did that. Khomenei actually had an agreement to work with the Americans, who thought he was usefully anti-communist, but was upstaged by the radicals. It is interesting that he felt he couldn't challenge their illegal behavior. Since then it has become politically mandatory in both countries to demonize the other. Our relations have nearly perfect symmetry.
It makes perfect economic sense for a country with amply oil (and natural gas) to want Nuclear power. The value of oil (and gas) is determined by its international price. If Nuclear power means Iran has more oil (or gas) available for export, they are ahead for having it. The fact that they want Nukes for power, even though it would be possible to create the power from otherwise exportable resources, doesn't prove that they want to Nukes for weapons purposes. AFAIK they haven't substantially violated the Nuclear NonProfliferation Treaty, so they are formally entitled to their program.
Now, it is sad, that this athlete felt he had to give up his chance in the Olympics.
Posted by: bigTom | August 12, 2008 3:50 PM
And of course, those stonings, beheadings, etc. mentioned above are from those great US allies Saudi.
Besides, how does he expect to swim well in that burkah?
Posted by: eddie | August 12, 2008 4:15 PM
Well if you think that this guy could have competed against an Israeli you are totally wrong, because obviously the government won't let him. So instead of blaming him, one should actually look at the realities.
Firstly, someone mentioned that men in Iran are in Burqas thus they cannot swim. I didn't get his sarcasm!
Secondly, the seizure of the American embassy in 1979 is something that all Iranians wanted to do because 25 year before that, the US-led coup d'etat against the DEMOCRATICALLY elected government of Iran stopped the Iranians (and the world) from having a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. So why are you all blaming Iran for its theocracy? I think it is the US that should be blamed for all the problems in the Mid East.
And also as you might know until now, I am currently in Iran and I don't see public executions and torture of women and a complete dictatorship in the streets of Tehran. There is more freedom of speech in the taxis in Tehran than anywhere else in the world.
Why don't you come and have a glance at the Iranian life??? No one says anything about the rich culture, the beautiful poetry and the elite patterns of the Persian rug, yet instead we all talk about the terrorists.
Posted by: mazi fayaz | August 12, 2008 5:35 PM
As usual, only the extreme positions are being stated here. I agree completely that it was the American overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 that led inexorably to the Khomeini regime and the taking of hostages. But it's a big leap from that to the claim in the last comment that "the US that should be blamed for all the problems in the Mid East." That's just plain idiotic. And while there is a great deal to admire about Persian history and culture, which is indeed as rich and delightful as the commenter suggests, that does not negate any argument I've made here. This notion of not competing against Israeli athletes is really, really stupid. So is the claim from the Iranian government official that they're not really competing against them because they're in different lanes. They've taken the idiotic position that they can't compete with Israel, and when they changed that position they used an idiotic excuse to justify it. That is the only thing this post criticized.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | August 12, 2008 6:55 PM
Ed's perspective is insightful and fair, from my perspective. The history, and the stories, and the contributions to civilization of the region now called the Middle East are among the chief jewels of human heritage. For a very long time, and for some other, shorter times, these places and peoples stood at the fore of a nascent enlightenment that even now is the basis of many current ideals.
The current age is not among the brighter for this part of the world. Radical elements find it easy to gain acceptance by a population not far removed from a Bedouin way of life and fierce tribalism. Since a large portion of the population is, apparently, ignorant of their own cultural and historical heritage it is easy to stir up passion. Add the grotesqueness of certain religiosities and it is easy to see why the entire region, with notable but small exceptions, behaves like snot-nosed-twelve-year-old-playground-trash. Their collective behavior is almost a mirror image of the behavior of children who have been neglected and untaught. This observation has long amused me. And saddened me.
But it is funny that a guy goes to a swimming competition and doesn't get wet!
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | August 12, 2008 8:26 PM
Brian X said:
Which is solid evidence that holding elections is not the cure for all injustice, despite the opinions of the religion of neo-conservatism.
Funny how often we overthrow democratically elected governments in other countries.
Posted by: BaldApe | August 12, 2008 11:29 PM
Turkey is the only democracy in the Middle East at the moment. Turkey has been under civillian government since 1983 and democracy does seem to have got fairly well established there. Meanwhile Israel denies about 40% of the adult population under its rule meaningful participation in elections (roughly equivalent to Stormont before Heath abolished it). Morocco has a sizable number of MPs selected by the King and Iran routinely bars candidates from elections. In both Isreal and Morocco elections have real meaning and are reasonably free but neither actually qualifies as democratic.
Posted by: Brett Dunbar | August 13, 2008 5:13 AM
Damn, alot of racist people on these boards who have absolutely no idea about Iran.
Beheadings? I think your mistaking it for Iraq buddy.
What would do you even live in? Can you even find Iran on the map or are you the statistic of Americans who can't?
It is all politics, just like how America is Israels bitch and will never talk to Iran even though the Americans lay preconditions for talks that will never happen. You know why they won't happen? Cause the Americans (Israel) know Iran have too much pride to accept anything like that.
It is a circle. But with negative comments towards Iran, keep the bullshit to yourself.
Posted by: Psy | August 13, 2008 9:16 AM