Everyone knew Vladimir Putin would use the soccer world cup in Russia as a chance for back-slapping diplomacy. But it’s just possible that he could also bring together two adversaries whose relationship has completely broken down.
Putin has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to join him in Moscow next month for the finals.
Sport is very political in the Middle East. It’s the subject of an essay by the liberal Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron in a new book called Kingdom of Olives and Ash.
Listen to the program on the ABC Religion and Ethics Report presented by Andrew West.
[For an alternative perspective I invite readers to listen to the latest episode of my own program ‘The Israel Connexion‘ in which I interviewed Assaf Gavron and then presented a counterview from Barry Shaw co-ordinator of the campaign to Kick Terrorism out of Football.)