Football Results and Politics

JERUSALEM — In the Mid­dle East, every­thing is polit­i­cal. Even sports. Israel’s par­lia­ment, the Knes­set, held an inquiry into why the country’s soc­cer team failed to qual­ify for the World Cup, and the Iran­ian soc­cer asso­ci­a­tion made a diplo­matic snafu by acci­den­tally send­ing New Year’s greet­ings to the Israeli team. What a region!