Ghana football player John Pentsil after his team’s victory
Source: AP, via Ha’aretz

What a lovely story! Following Ghana’s tremendous and unexpected soccer victory over the powerhouse Czech Republic, a Ghanaian player whipped out an Israeli flag to show his support for the embattled Jewish state at the moment of his own victory. What a breath of fresh air for Israel, which usually has to hear horrible things about itself in the international political arena. This Ghanaian player wanted to honor them along with Ghana.

The soccer player, John Pentsil, plays for teams in Israel between World Cups and feels such affection for the country that made him such a good soccer player that he wanted to make sure everyone remembered Israel, too! Israel just narrowly missed a spot in the World Cup, having to compete against the big European players who are extremely good. This football player wanted to share his victory with Israel, too.

It must be a Ghanaian thing. I have a friend who was a foreign correspondent in Africa and he told me that trips to Ghana were such a pleasant experience, compared to the other countries, because the people were so courteous and polite, always saying, ‘please,’ and ‘thank you,’ and showing consideration. What a lovely country. Pentsil’s gesture may be to honor Israel, but the country we notice here in this instance is Ghana.

Ha’aretz has the story here.

UPDATE: The reaction to this in places like Islamofascist-friendly Egypt, has been pretty ugly. Anti-Semitism is now turning into anti-Ghana-ism. It is truly disgusting. Some Egyptians are ranting and raving about the Ghana player’s gesture of waving the Israel flag. And now the Ghana soccer federation is apologizing, where no apology is needed. Just disgusting again! The Ghanaian player was not making a political statement, he was just thanking Israel for making him the champion that he is. By contrast, what has Egypt ever done for Ghanian soccer players? Many African players say they encounter nasty racism when they play for Arab teams, something they don’t encounter in Israel. The anti-Semites harassing Ghana over this ought to be ashamed of themselves. Jim Hoft at GatewayPundit has a definitive roundup of this whole sorry coda here. Be sure to catch the appropriate outrage of this post from Pamela at Atlas Shrugs

My own reaction:

BUY GHANAIAN PRODUCTS AND CHEER THE GHANAIAN TEAM!