Watch Hatikvah played in Athens at Gal Fridman's gold medal ceremony here. Cool. Thanks to Israellycool.

This also from a related AP story:

After crossing the finish line, Fridman pumped his fist, took a victory dip and then wrapped himself in an Israeli flag when he emerged from the water. Later, he promised to take his gold medal to the memorial in Tel Aviv for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches killed after being seized by a Palestinian terrorist group at the 1972 Munich Games.

Whenever I think of Israel and Greece, I think of my aunt. She married an Israeli about 35 years ago when it seemed like the everyone in the world thought all young Israeli soldiers were cool. At least in my world they were. My aunt and uncle honeymooned in Greece and as a little boy I was fascinated by those old color Polaroids. What a different world that was.

My uncle always joked with me that I was a soft American. He used to always tease me that while I went to college to study and party, he had been a sergeant in the army having to kill people who were trying to kill him. (That's the cleaned up version)!

Sabras are the only ones who can give me a bigger guilt complex than my own mother can. Must be why I married one - although to be fair she left Israel when she was three years old :-)

That was a nice break from politics - now where did I put my copy of the Tommy Franks biography.....