It was September 1972. West Germany had branded the Munich Olympics the “Cheerful Games” — die Heitere Spiele — determined to erase any echo of the Nazis’ 1936 Berlin Games. Police were discreet, security invisible, the mood light-hearted.

It was — at a devastating cost.

On September 5, eight Palestinian terrorists from Black September scaled the Olympic Village fence almost unchallenged, murdered an Israeli athlete and a coach, and took nine hostages: four athletes, three coaches, a referee, and a judge.

Israel offered an experienced rescue team. Germany refused, despite lacking a trained unit, expertise, or a serious rescue plan. At Fürstenfeldbruck airbase, the operation collapsed. All nine hostages were killed: eleven Israelis in total.

Even before the victims’ blood had dried, IOC president Avery Brundage declared: “The Games must go on.” Nothing, I believe, better embodies the disconnect between the Olympic ideal and the commercial fairy tale of the modern Games.

A memorial ceremony followed, and the world returned to the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)