Israel finds itself with a chance to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 35 years, and the legs most responsible belong to a devout Muslim who faces racist taunting nearly every time he steps on the field.Abbas Suan is the captain of Bnei Sakhnin, the only Israeli Arab team in Israel’s first division, a team without its own stadium or practice field but one that still managed to win the prestigious State Cup last year.Suan (29), whose last-minute equaliser against Ireland on March 26 kept Israel in World Cup contention, now finds his cheery face and toothy smile featured in ads for the state lottery. Its director said he wanted to strike a blow against racism, but also to entice more Israeli Arabs to play the lottery.For Suan, it’s a little more money for someone who makes, without bonuses, about $1,500 a month, and it’s another chance to stress, in his quiet way, that Israeli Arabs are an integral part of Israel and are not going to disappear.After his big goal against Ireland — the pun in Hebrew, on the word ‘‘equaliser’’, was that ‘‘finally an Israeli Arab gets equality’’ — Suan was hailed by numerous Israelis as gibor yisrael, a biblical phrase meaning hero or savior of Israel. Four days after Suan’s goal, another Israeli Arab on the team, Walid Badir, scored the tying goal in the 83rd minute in a 1-1 draw with France.But the following week, Suan was welcomed to a league match against Betar Jerusalem with profanity and a large sign: ‘‘Abbas Suan — you do not represent us’’. Some Betar fans chanted a slogan, ‘‘Abbas Suan is sick with cancer’’, which rhymes in Hebrew.Suan takes the high road. He’s bilingual and speaks Arabic at home, as he did during a recent interview. Lying on the pitted grass of a borrowed practice field in the Druze village of Yarka, a 30-minute drive from Sakhnin, in Galilee in northern Israel, Suan said he wanted ‘‘to bridge the gap between Jews and Arabs’’ and ‘‘send a good message to the Arab sector’’.A midfielder, Suan is expected to start in Israel’s next World Cup qualifying match, at Ireland in early June. With four games left, including two against the Faroe Islands and one against Switzerland, Israel has a realistic chance to get to Germany for the 2006 World Cup.In its only World Cup visit, in 1970, Israel played weaker Asian teams in qualifying and was eliminated in the first round in Mexico. Arab boycotts of Israel made FIFA put Israel in the European zone, where the problem for Israel isn’t boycotts, but stiffer competition.Suan’s club, Sakhnin, is a tale in itself, a monument to the perseverance of a building contractor, Mazen Ghanaim, the club chairman. He says that the club has the lowest budget of the major Israeli teams, $2.1 million, about a quarter of the average first-division budget, and that he’s $2.3 million short of funds to finish rebuilding Sakhnin’s stadium.‘‘Of course we’re under pressure’’, Ghanaim said. ‘‘We’re the only Israeli Arab team that has come this far. We have very little, and we don’t have anyone to support and help us. It’s very frustrating.’’The team itself is a model of coexistence: a majority of Israeli Arabs, some Jews and some foreigners. The coach, Eyal Lachman, a Jew, tried to use the team’s anger about being small and snubbed to feed its aggression. The team plays hard, with a lot of fouls, but Lachman said it was the only way to stay with richer Israeli teams, let alone top European ones.(The New York Times)
