The Depth of the Iranian Regime’s Hatred For Israel

So deep is the hatred of the Iranian regime for Israel that it will not let any of its athletes compete against Israeli athletes, insisting that they instead refuse to play, even though that causes their automatic disqualification from the competition. It has happened in boxing, in wrestling, and especially, in judo, and even — in the game that was invented in Iran — in chess.

In 2019, Iranian chess champion Alireza Firouzja and said he would no longer play for his home country due to Iran’s ban against Israeli competitors. Israelis excel in chess, and there was no way that the Iranian chess champion could have avoided playing someone from the Jewish state. He could have forfeited such a match, or he could have done something much more dramatic: leave the country, renounce his Iranian citizenship, and play instead for a civilized country. He chose to leave Iran, and now lives in France, and competes as a French citizen. His victories — he is now a grandmaster — might once have been seen as victories “for Iran.” Not any longer. Is Iran better off now that its strongest chess player in history has turned his back completely on that country, all because of Iran’s ban on competing with Israelis?

The most dramatic case of the mullahs interfering with Iranian athletes has been that involving Saeid Mollaei, formerly the world champion in judo. He was frequently forced to deliberately throw games with non-Israeli players so that he would not move up to the next level, if that would mean he’d have to compete with an Israeli. The Iranian coach, Mohamed Mansouri, describes how the hero of Iranian judo had to avoid facing one Israeli competitor: “Saeid Mollaei [the Iranian champion judoka] once was forced to feign sickness for four times in one single year, to avoid fighting an Israeli. In Abu Dhabi, they plastered his healthy leg, as an excuse for leaving the competition. Perhaps the most dramatic disqualification was when Iranian authorities, the Iranian Sports Minister, and the presidents of the Iran Judo Federation, and the Iran Olympic Committee, all ordered Mollaei to intentionally lose in the semi-final at the Tokyo 2019 World Championships, so as to avoid a potential match in the finals against Israeli 2019 world champion Sagi Muki.

Mollaei, full of sorrow and rage, did as he was told.

But saying he was afraid to return to Iran after exposing and criticizing its pressure on him to deliberately lose in the World Championships to avoid a potential bout against Muki, in August 2019, Mollaei left Japan, and moved to Europe with a two-year visa from Germany. In November 2019, he was granted asylum by Germany, and that same month, he competed as part of the IJF (International Judo Federation) refugee team at the Osaka Grand Slam. Muki — the Israeli he had avoided competing against in Japan — congratulated Mollaei for returning to judo and participating in Osaka in his first competition since the World Championships in Tokyo. Mollaei, in turn, thanked Muki for his support and wrote: “Good luck to you all the time, my best friend.” Mollaei also posted a photo of them standing together, and wrote: “This is true friendship and a win for sports and judo over politics.” Mollaei also posted a photo of them, the Iranian and the Israeli, standing together, and wrote: “This is true friendship and a win for sports and judo over politics.” This must have driven the mullahs wild with anger.

On December 1, 2019, Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga (himself the chairman of Mongolian Judo Federation) offered Mollaei citizenship, which he accepted.

Mollaei arrived in Israel in February 2021 to compete at the Tel Aviv Grand Prix. He represented Mongolia at Grand Slam Hungary 2020 and won bronze medal in the –81 kg category.

Mollaei trained in Israel with the Israeli national judo team in the months prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics. He went on to win the silver medal in the men’s –81 kg event. Mollaei, who in 2019 had to avoid playing an Israeli, has been befriended by Israelis, trained in Israel, and become a supporter of the Jewish state. That wasn’t what the rulers in Tehran had had in mind.

Among the ways that the Iranian government has forced its athletes to avoid competing against Israelis, has been keeping them above their required weight limit. Another Iranian superstar judoka, Mohammad Mohammadi Barimanlou, was told to stop losing weight in order that he would not qualify in his weight class, so that he would be eliminated from the next round of the championship, in order that “that he wouldn’t face an Israeli.”

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Cassandra

7 months ago

Replace the heading with “Bi Dung regime visceral hatred for Israel”. Iran says thanks for the $9 billion…they couldn’t do anything without obas turd and Val jar jar and the Bu Dung regime.

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Stephen Honig

7 months ago

I hate saying it because I’m basically peaceful, but Israel must drop the bomb on Iran before they annihilate them!

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Chess

7 months ago

ALL OBAMA’S DOING.

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Chess

7 months ago

Joe and Jill: Just obama’s whores.

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