After the first reports about the events in Munich, the Israeli government approached the West German government and the International Olympic Committee with a forceful demand to suspend the games as long as the hostages had not been released. The Israeli embassy in Washington was also involved in the contacts, and tried to put pressure on the American government to act to suspend the games. Golda Meir even told the government the next day that President Nixon had called her and said that he had told the American delegation to stop its participation as long as the Israeli athletes were in danger (see Document 9). Indeed, at the beginning, it seemed that the Americans were inclined to try to stop the games, as reported by Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin in a telegram to the Foreign Ministry (Document 5). Public opinion in Israel was outraged and also demanded stopping the games. However, the embassy in Bonn reported that the heads of the Olympic Committee and the West German authorities had decided not to stop the games; among other things, because “German television has no alternative programming” (Document 6). Later, it was decided to suspend the games and conduct a memorial ceremony the following day for the two Israelis killed in the first few hours, which eventually became a memorial ceremony for all eleven murdered athletes.
The tragic conclusion of the attack raised the issue of cancelling the games completely. At the government meeting deep differences of opinion emerged among the ministers on the question of whether Israel should continue to demand stopping the games (Document 9). It was decided to await the United States’ position on the matter, and the statement that was released said only that the entire Israeli delegation had cancelled its participation and was returning to Israel. However, an exchange of telegrams with the embassy in Washington made clear that the Americans had asked that Golda should not approach the president with a request to pull out the American delegation, and should not force them to face this dilemma. Mordechai Gazit, the director-general of the Foreign Ministry told Rabin: “We, as a government, do not wish to present a demand to stop the games, but if the American delegation were to shorten its stay, we would be very grateful” (Document 7). Although the German ambassador to Israel had stated on 6 September that his government was inclined to stopping the games (Document 8), after a recess of one day, they continued to their planned conclusion.
