Tonight (Friday) the official opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics will take place in Paris. The ceremony will be attended by thousands of athletes from all over the world, including a particularly large Israeli delegation of more than 100 athletes. The Israeli flag will be carried by the judoka Peter Palachik (who won a bronze medal together with the judo team in Tokyo, 2021) and the swimmer Andi Morz. In addition, dozens of leaders from around the world will participate in the opening ceremony, including President Yitzhak Herzog.
“I told the athletes that they can imagine that there are abductees who are in Gaza,” described President Herzog, “and suddenly you see some flash on some media channel, and then you see it and it can give them a huge mental boost. I really hope that by any means we will bring the abductees home soon, there things went a significant way in Washington yesterday. You will see a new plan in the next two days that will bring the abductees home. I keep repeating my call to bring them home soon.”
The effects of the ongoing war in Israel did not escape the Olympics, and the host France took care of security on a huge scale (something that makes this Olympics, probably, the most secured sports event in history), which emphasizes the safety of the Israeli delegation and President Herzog. Various terrorist groups have already issued threats to harm the Olympics, as well as more specific threats towards Israel; Indeed, this morning there was an incident in the computer network of France’s railway system, which led to disruptions on a large scale, delaying hundreds of thousands of passengers. The suspicion is about a cyber attack organized by terrorist organizations.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz commented on the train incident in France, and laid the blame on Iran: the acts of sabotage of the train infrastructure throughout France prior to the opening of the Paris Olympics were planned and carried out under the inspiration of Iran’s evil axis and radical Islam. As I warned my French colleague this week, based on information in Israel’s possession, the Iranians are planning to carry out terrorist attacks against the Israeli delegation and all the participants of the Olympics, and increased preventive activities must be taken to thwart their plot. The free world must stop Iran now – before it’s too late.” Israel will certainly not allow a replay of the events of Munich, 1972.
