I was thrilled to hear about Ghana’s soccer star John Paintsil, who also plays for the Hapoel Tel Aviv team, and how he waved the Israeli flag after scoring a goal during a recent World Cup soccer match. The Forward covered the story in this week’s edition, however, according to a Yahoo! News report earlier in the week Paintsil’s Israeli pride seemed to irk the Egyptians just a bit. Hapoel Tel Aviv issued a statement expressing pride in its player, and a Jerusalem Post writer declared, “At last we have an ambassador for Israel who doesn’t care about politics.”
Unfortunately, two days after the flag waving, Ghana’s team spokesman apologized, calling Paintsil’s act “naive.” He insisted that Paintsil didn’t “act out of malice for the Arab people or in support of Israel.”