July 19, 2012
Obama backs moment of silence at Olympics
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President Barack Obama in Fla. on July 19.Photo by REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Obama has joined the campaign for a moment of silence at the upcoming London Olympics to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Palestinian terrorists murdering Israeli athletes at the Munich games.
“We absolutely support the campaign for a minute of silence at the Olympics to honor the Israeli athletes killed in Munich,” National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News in an email.
The families of the victims of the 1972 massacre, the State of Israel and Jewish communities have consistently requested a moment of silence in subsequent Olympics. Other than the day after the murders themselves, the Olympics have never granted an official moment of silence. Olympic officials point out that they have sent representatives to host-city Jewish community commemorations.
Obama joins the U.S. Senate, the German Bundestag, the Canadian and Australian parliaments, about 50 members of the British Parliament and about 100 members of Australia’s Parliament in the call.
A spokeswoman for Mitt Romney, Andrea Saul, said the Republican standard-bearer had taken no public stance on the issue, according to Yahoo News.
