The World Cup is here again, which means it’s time for Americans to care about soccer for a few weeks. This is doubly true since America is one of the host nations.
Most of this has been positive. If you’re on social media, you’ve doubtlessly seen foreigners discovering that the U-S-of-A is actually pretty cool and not at all like what their media tells them it is. However, for some pot-stirrers out there, it’s a chance to bring attention to their pet political causes.
In that vein, I give you a pro-Palestinian X user who managed to go bad-viral with the worst possible take on why Palestine isn’t in the World Cup: Israel apparently killed all of its players while the world wasn’t watching.
It’s too bad history doesn’t exactly comport with the facts, as he was soon reminded of.
Now, first, let’s get one thing out of the way: Palestine is an independent country in the same way that Narnia is, only with one less lion and a lot more terrorists.
However, it’s worth noting that this isn’t really a prerequisite for World Cup participation. In this year’s competition alone, we have the non-independent geographical entities of Scotland and Curaçao, which are part of the United Kingdom and Netherlands, respectively. (There’s also Haiti, which is technically independent, but also failed state run by gangsters with monikers like “Barbecue,” so, I mean, come on.)
That said, here’s what X user @Laddin_ said was the reason the Palestinian team didn’t qualify:
Should all school children be taught about atrocities committed against the Jewish people?
Yes: 98% (230 Votes)
No: 2% (4 Votes)
Palestine would be in the World Cup if Israel didn’t kill all its players
— Free (@Laddin_) June 13, 2026
I must have missed this one, which would have been reported on ad nauseam if it had actually happened. But hey, speaking of killing off a country’s athletes, Mr. Laddin was swiftly reminded of who actually kills who:
Every accusation is a confession. pic.twitter.com/G0BXOKtStC
— Eli Lebowicz (@EliLebowicz) June 14, 2026
For those of you who have blocked out this thing called “the news” for more than half a century, during the 1972 Munich Olympics, a terrorist group stormed the athletes’ village and ended up killing 11 athletes, coaches, and referees from Israel.
Granted, these weren’t soccer players — most of them were involved in wrestling, weightlifting, and fencing — but to the extent that one side in the Israel-Palestine conflict is killing top-level athletes from the other side, it ain’t Israel.
“Every accusation is a confession,” indeed.
In case you were wondering why the Palestinians aren’t in the World Cup, it’s because they aren’t very good. The Palestinians have a soccer team that is ranked 95th in the world, according to FIFA’s scoring system. That places them below powerhouses such as Benin and Thailand, and just above Belarus, a country whose best players are more likely to be killed, tortured, or jailed by their own government than the Palestinian players are.
In fact, the Palestine Football Association has been in seven World Cup qualifying tournaments and have made the big show a grand total of zero times. Why? Not because of anyone being killed, but because they keep losing.
This time around, they actually managed to make it to the third round of qualifying, where they finished fifth out of six teams in their group. The first two teams qualified automatically, the second two made it to a fourth round.
But even though no Palestinian players were killed by the Israelis — who, by the way, also didn’t make the tournament — I guess you could make the point that the bloodshed in Gaza could theoretically be responsible for this.
To that argument, I bring up the point again: Haiti made the World Cup. Haiti has been a violent hellhole since the Duvaliers were in power, and has somehow gone downhill since the days of Papa and Baby Doc. Other nations that aren’t particularly stable but still managed to get in include Algeria, Iraq, the Ivory Coast, and Senegal. Plus, remember who started the violence in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. It wasn’t the Israelis.
Also, have I mentioned that freaking Curaçao is in this tournament? Because they are, and if you can show me Curaçao on a map, you’re either from Curaçao or won the National Geographic Bee as a kid.
However, if we want to talk about killing athletes, sure: Let’s have a discussion about 1972 in Munich, Mr. Laddin. My guess is that you’re not terribly interested. Because, to the woke Palestinian supporter hive mind, killing Jews is always justified so long as it advances the cause.
You can’t blame someone for having heard a lie. You can, however, definitely blame someone who refuses to hear the truth because it makes their cause look reprehensible.
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