Israel's multiple fault lines -- secular vs. religious, Jewish vs. Palestine and controversial calls for a boycott of the Jewish state -- are exploding on the soccer pitch.

The Israeli government, in a historic break with past policy, is taking right-wing, nationalist Israeli soccer club, Beitar Jerusalem, to task for its openly racist policy of refusing to hire Israeli-Palestinian players, who rank among the country's top performers.

Israel's Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) has demanded that notoriously racist club Beitar Jerusalem, the bad boy of Israeli soccer, retract recent statements that it would maintain its policy of not hiring Palestinian players because of opposition by the team's militant, racist fan base.

Legal and diplomatic battles in United Nations organizations and international sport associations involving charges of war crimes and efforts to suspend membership of one or the other are likely to shape future Israeli-Palestinian relations in the wake of last month's electoral victory by Binyamin Netanyahu.

Palestine has set a new benchmark for nations like the Kurds and the Kosovars who see soccer as a key part of their toolbox to achieve statehood with its qualification for this month's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup even if the Palestinian road to statehood is increasingly pockmarked by seemingly insurmountable barriers.

A Saudi-led proxy war against Iran playing out in Syria and Iraq has expanded onto the soccer pitch with a last minute decision by the Palestinian national team to cancel a friendly against Iran.