Jewish athletes from 64 countries marched into Israel's national stadium on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games, known as the Jewish Olympics, amid tight security.
Thousands of police deployed to guard the festive opening ceremony, closing roads around the stadium. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Moshe Katsav watched proceedings from the VIP stand enclosed by a specially constructed shield of bulletproof glass.
Organizers called the participation of 7,700 athletes in the 17th Maccabiah Games a success. The last games in 2001, held at the height of Israeli-Palestinian violence, were cut short, and only some 2,000 athletes braved the trip the region.
"Four years ago we were in the midst of a cruel terror onslaught designed to break our spirit," Sharon told the crowd.
"Participants in the 16th Maccabiah who came to Israel made a great contribution to our morale," the prime minister said.
However, this year security concerns focused on threats from Jewish extremists opposed to Sharon's "disengagement" plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next week.
"We decided to put up bulletproof glass in the dignitary section so they would have sufficient protection," said Oded Sagee, one of the games organizers.
"Protection is especially important nowadays, and the Arabs are not the concern here," he said.
As the ceremony got underway, pullout opponents planted a dummy bomb in the Jerusalem central bus station. Police evacuated the station after discovering the package with electric wires protruding attached to a gas canister.
Sappers examining the package found no explosives. Instead, Channel 10 reported, they discovered a note with the slogan, "Disengagement will blow up in our faces," a saying used by opponents of the pullout.
But security did not mar the festive Olympic-style opening ceremony and fears that pullout opponents would disrupt Sharon's speech failed to materialize.
Sharon said he hoped the games would spread a feeling of unity among all Jewish people.
"Your arrival here signifies the bond between all the Jewish communities with Israel at the center," he said.
Sharon also called on participants to come and live in the Jewish State.
Windsurfer Gal Fridman, the winner of Israel's first and only Olympic gold medal, lit the Maccabiah torch.
Thousands of dancers dressed in lavish costumes entertained the estimated 35,000 people in the stadium as hot-air balloons hovered overhead and fireworks filled the sky.
"This is a great celebration of sport for Jews," said Jewish American swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg, who won three gold medals in the Sydney Olympics and participated in the last games.
Krayzelburg said he would not take part this time due to a lingering shoulder injury.
The first team into the stadium was the 525 strong Australian delegation. The team was led by relatives of the four Australian team members killed when a bridge collapsed at the opening ceremony of the 1997 games.
"Mum never got to the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah, so I thought that it would be nice to complete that," Mark Bennett, whose mother, Yetty, was one of the athletes killed, told the Haaretz daily.
The athletes will compete in 34 different sports during the 12-day event.
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