"SHOUTS TO ISRAEL!" - THE NEW YORK TIMES

Counter-narrative 1, Ranaldo reppin 

“This is the very first time since Kiryat Shmona was established that the city was in the news not because of the connection with missiles, attacks and war, but football,” he said.

The team’s rise can largely be traced to one man — Izzy Sheratzky, a millionaire from Tel Aviv who made his money in Global Positioning System devices that help track stolen cars and who founded the club 10 years ago.

Sheratzky, a native Israeli, began investing heavily in Kiryat Shmona after being moved by images of its being pounded by Katyusha rockets 13 years ago. Eventually, he decided to buy two local clubs and merge them with a dream of taking his new team to the highest level of European soccer.

“In 1999, I saw the wars and the Katyushas and many bombs,” he said in an interview last Saturday an hour before his team took the field. “Many people left Kiryat Shmona. The situation was very bad. There was no work and there was the bombs. I decided to take care of Kiryat Shmona and to help them.”

- James Montague, "Small City Is Home to Israel’s Unlikely Top Team," The New York Times [1/25/2012]

Counter-narrative 2, Nabulsi kids play soccer

The Lebanese-Israeli frontier is also used to assist in cultivating national pride. In March 2000, it was already quite clear that the Israeli army were soon going to withdraw from Lebanon. At the beginning of that month al-Aakha al-Nasira, the team from Nazereth, hosted ha-Po'el Be-er Sheva'. Nazereth led the game 2:1, but in the ninetieth minute a Be'er Sheva' player scored a goal with his hand/ The Jewish referee, Arik Haymovich, at first confirmed the goal, and gave a shower of fruit and bottles thrown by the infuriated audience. After a minute the line referee that, from his angle saw clearly that the goal was scored by hand, which caused Haymovich to cancel the goal. 'Awawde links the events of this game to the fights between the IDF and the Shi'ite Lebanese guerrilla militia, Hizballah. The material thrown at the referee is likened to th Katyusha missiles Hizballah launched over the Israeli border city, Kiryt Shmona:

Arik Haymovich remembered Kiryat Shmona and its missiles and asked for a real peace process. The borders of the Nazareth team refused the agreement that he wrote and took back their legal rights, which are recognized by the [Israeli Footbal] Association and by the refrying rules. Nazareth fans have drawn the map of rights.

Further, 'Awawde said of Be'er Sheva' players and the team manager, Eli Gino: "Gino thought that he is the Maginot line in the Association, and ha-Po'el Be'er Sheva' players wanted to rob  the legitimate and real rights." In this text, Nazareth fans are compared to Hizballah warriors and Be'er Sheva' players are the state's representatives who surrender only after being hit by missiles.

- Tamir Sorek, Arab Soccer in a Jewish State: The Integrative Enclave [2007]