Israelis Divided Over Which Antisemitic World Cup Team To Root For

Tel Aviv, June 18 – The current crop of FIFA World Cup teams competing for the championship trophy has Israelis split on which of the many Jew-hating countries in the tournament deserves their support.

Thirty-two teams will vie over the next several weeks for supremacy, first within their groups of four, and then, for the top two in in each group, in an elimination tournament among the remaining sixteen. Each group features countries distinguished for their antisemitic rhetoric or historic mistreatment of Jews, in some cases both.

Defending champion Spain is known as the country that expelled its Jews in 1492 amid centuries of forcing conversion on them, but faces stiff competition for Most Antisemitic Country even in its own geographic conference, where powerhouses such as Germany, France, Russia, and Croatia each boast robust histories of expelling, massacring, pillaging, and otherwise abusing the Jews under their control. Even England, not generally perceived as an antisemitic country, was actually the first European state, back in 1290, to expel all Jews; they were only allowed to return in limited numbers under Oliver Cromwell in the seventeenth century.

The remaining European countries in that conference, though better known for other characteristics, each have their own robust Jew-hating credentials, though they often succeed in concealing them beneath of veneer of polite civility or reasoned political verbiage. Far-right antisemitic ideology has a venerable place in Greece and the other Balkan states, while Switzerland manages to couch its antisemitism in vogue anti-Zionism. Portugal, despite its tame reputation, expelled the Jews just five years after the Spanish did.

Elsewhere in the world, traditional Jew-haters are well represented, with Iran and Algeria prominent in their groups and nations that habitually side against Israel in international forums make up the bulk of the remaining slots. Of special note is Argentina, where the bombings of Jewish institutions there in the 1990’s have remained officially unsolved despite clear evidence of Iranian and Hezbollah involvement.

Australia, which recently clarified its position that the territories most of the world considers occupied by Israel are actually “disputed” – a more neutral term not prejudiced against Israel – qualified for the World Cup, but is lowest ranked among all contenders, placing 62nd.