Will ‘Palestinian’ soccer Lawfare backfire?

i24News reported on May 28, 2015 that it looks increasingly likely that the international soccer Federation FIFA will somehow not carry through on a ‘Palestinian’ demand that Israel be expelled from the Federation (“FIFA 'won't accept' Palestinian bid to suspend Israel, says Euro football chief Platini”).

If you’ve been following this story, you know that the ‘Palestinian’ Football [soccer] Association (PFA) wants the Israel Football [soccer] Association (IFA) expelled from all future international soccer tournaments. Israel’s offense, the PFA alleges, is that it restricts ‘Palestinian’ player movement into and through Israel (ibid).

The vote to expel Israel is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Friday, May 29, 2015. But on the way to that vote, FIFA has been ambushed by US and Swiss Federal authorities.

On Wednesday, May 28, 2015, Swiss police swept into the hotel where FIFA was gathering to hold its most important International conference and arrested several high-ranking FIFA officials for corruption, money laundering and bribery. The US is involved because it alleges that these crimes took place in the US and/or used US banks.

As you might expect, the arrests have plunged FIFA into turmoil (ibid). With the governing body embroiled in a massive graft scandal, few seem interested in focusing on a vote to ban Israel. In fact, such a vote looks “increasingly tenuous” (ibid). Apparently, few, except perhaps the ‘Palestinians’ and their Arab friends, are focusing on Israel.

The European branch of FIFA, the UEFA, has held emergency talks with FIFA executives over this vote. UEFA President Michel Platini has announced that he believes FIFA will now “not accept" the ‘Palestinian’ bid to ban Israel (ibid).

There’s even a chance that the vote won’t even make the agenda, even though the PFA soccer President has refused all requests to back down. The scandal may push the Israel vote off everyone’s ‘radar’.

The ‘Palestinians’ won’t remove the demand. They’re not backing down. They aren’t making friends right now at FIFA. Their lawfare war against Israel looks more and more like an insane obsession. FIFA is a sports Federation, not an international political organization. Israel hasn’t broken any FIFA rules; there appear to be no grounds to expel it.

‘Palestinians’ don’t care. They want to ‘internationalize’ their war against Israel through something called, ‘lawfare’—the use of law (and international organizations’ rules)—to isolate and delegitimize Israel.

They want to use the soccer world to kick Israel out of the family of Man because FIFA, the international soccer Federation, is the largest non-government arena in the world. As Kevin Connolly wrote May 28, 2015 for BBC News, when it comes to arenas, it doesn’t get any bigger than FIFA (“Fifa crisis: Palestinians press to show Israel red card”).

The ‘Palestinians’ seem completely obsessed. They don’t seem to give a damn about FIFA’s crisis. They seem to care only about their own—non-sports—political issues. They want FIFA to forget about sports and ‘go political’.

FIFA may not be interested.

This Arab obsession, occurring right in the middle of a FIFA organization crisis, isn’t winning friends or influencing people. This Arab lawfare war to delegitimize, isolate and expel Israel from ‘proper company’ looks like it could backfire on one of the world’s largest stages. Will that happen?

The big vote on Israel is scheduled for Friday, May 29, 2015—tomorrow. Stay tuned.