eepmeep (John Fernandez) wrote:
Nick Bourbaki wrote:

For the record, what John Fernandez has 'quoted' (below) from my post were
*not my original words*, and John Fernandez has *not* properly attributed
those words--as he should have done--to their writer, Morten Sand of FIDE.

Here's a link (which I cited earlier) to Morten Sand's complete statement
of 29 June 2004 on behalf of FIDE in response to GM Vadim Milov:
http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/fide010704.html

(snipped by John Fernandez)
The invitation was sent to Mr. Milov just a few hours after midnight on
June 18th and as Mr. Milov had already been informed in the evening of
June 17 by the FIDE representatives that the invitation was on its way,
there was absolutely no need for him to cancel his flight. Even after the
cancellation it still would have been no problem for Mr. Milov to reach
Tripoli in time. The FIDE Secretariat in Tripoli managed to find several
flights, which had made it possible to make the trip to Tripoli in time.
FIDE also offered to pay for flight costs and *even to postpone Mr. Milov's
first game if necessary*.
(snipped by John Fernandez)

Again, those words (above) were written by Morten Sand of FIDE, *not* by me
(though the asterisks were mine). My quotation of Morten Sand's statement
does *not* necessarily imply any agreement or disagreement with it.

I'm simply not sure why Milov is the one with the problem.

The assertion that 'Milov is the one with the problem' seems to be
Larry Parr's position in this thread, but it is *not* mine, as anyone
who has read my earlier posts in this thread should be able to understand.

In the end Milov chose not to go, and was offered plenty of ways and
accomodations.

According to Morten Sand of FIDE, GM Vadim Milov had sufficient opportunity
to participate, if he had chosen to do so, in the FIDE tournament in Tripoli.
I have previously noted that FIDE had consented to postpone GM Vadim Milov's
first game after another scheduling mishap for him in the FIDE tournament in
Las Vegas, so I find it credible enough that FIDE would have been ready again
to postpone his first game in Tripoli if necessary.

If anything, the actual problem comes down to the ISRAELI players.

Some wilfully ignorant or simply dishonest troll(s) have made and even been
reiterating the false statement that all Jewish players were excluded from
the FIDE tournament in Tripoli. In fact, there were at least several players
of Jewish heritage who participated in the FIDE tournament in Tripoli.

Evidently, many ignorant persons tend to conflate being Israeli and being
Jewish. Most Jews in the world today are not citizens of Israel (though
Israel's 'Law of Return' permits any Jew to become a citizen of Israel),
and many citizens of Israel (Arabs, Druze, etc.) are not Jewish.

There's a much clearer line of roadblocks being put up in their case.
I'm rather surprised we're hearing from Milov, and not from Gelfand,
Sutovskij, Smirin, etc. Those guys really DO have a case.

I am quite critical of Israel's policies against the Palestinians,
yet I have played chess with Israeli players. I do not stereotype
all Israeli Jews as alike, and I do not stereotype all Arabs or Muslims
(most Muslims are not Arabs; and many Arabs are not Muslims) as alike.

With regard to the earlier FIDE world championship tournament in Las Vegas,
John Fernandez has written that IM Bagheri of Iran and IM Hakki of Syria
were excluded by the United States government (which denied them visas to
enter the United States) from participating, evidently for no other reasons
than their unwelcome nationalities. As far as I can tell, there seems to
be a comparative lack of objections by the apparently 'patriotically correct'
American writers in the chess newsgroups about the exclusion of players from
Iran or Syria (or perhaps some other countries perceived as hostile to the
United States). (Of course, most Iranians are not Arabs.)

"The incapacity of the United States to see Arabs as other human beings
is consistent with the ebbing of universalism within American society."
--Emmanuel Todd (After the Empire, p. 118)

(Emmanuel Todd is a French writer, who works at the National Institute for
Demographic Studies in Paris. By the way, he has described himself as being
of Jewish heritage.)

--Nick