One piece of evidence of the enduring legacy of the Bible in America’s culture is the regularity and comfort with which its athletes quote Scripture. Kelsey Dallas takes a closer look:

What you might not realize is that such shoutouts to scripture appeared in sports media as early as the late 19th century, when today’s major leagues were taking shape. For example, Amos Alonzo Stagg, a star pitcher for Yale University who became a prominent football coach, spoke in the 1880s about turning to Ecclesiastes 9:10 during games.

The New York Knicks star Josh Hart offered an impromptu Bible lesson . . . when asked about how he takes on the mental and physical challenge of playing all 48 minutes of an NBA playoff game. . . . “The whole game, I was reciting Isaiah 40:29, ‘For the weak, he renews strength,’” Hart said. . . . In April, he shared a different verse from Isaiah 40 after his team beat the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of their first-round series. . . . Two days later, he spotlighted Proverbs 11:2. It reads, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

Of course, Hart and the other athletes Dallas profiles quote the New Testament too. Since it might be of interest to Mosaic readers, I kept score: the result was a tie.

One of Hamas’s most notable failures since October 7 is that it has not succeeded in inspiring a violent uprising either among the Palestinians of the West Bank or the Arab citizens of Israel. The latter seem horrified by Hamas’s actions and tend to sympathize with their own country. In the former case, quiet has been maintained by the IDF and Shin Bet, which have carried out a steady stream of arrests, raids, and even airstrikes.

But there is a third category of Arab living in Israel, namely the Arabs of Jerusalem, whose intermediate legal status gives them access to Israeli social services and the right to vote in municipal elections. They may also apply for Israeli citizenship if they so desire, although most do not.

On Wednesday, off-duty Israeli soldiers in the Old City of Jerusalem shot at a Palestinian who, it seems, was attempting to attack them. But this incident is a rare exception to the quiet that has prevailed in Arab Jerusalem since the war began. Eytan Laub asked a friend in an Arab neighborhood why:

Listen, he said, we . . . have much to lose. We already fear that any confrontation would have consequences. Making trouble may put our residence rights at risk. Furthermore, he added, not a few in the neighborhood, including his own family, have applied for Israeli citizenship and participating in disturbances would hardly help with that.

Such an attitude reflects a general trend since the end of the second intifada:

In recent years, the numbers of [Arab] Jerusalemites applying for Israeli citizenship has risen, as the social stigma of becoming Israeli has begun to erode and despite an Israeli naturalization process that can take years and result in denial (because of the requirement to show Jerusalem residence or the need to pass a Hebrew language test). The number of east Jerusalemites granted citizenship has also risen, from 827 in 2009 to over 1,600 in 2020.

Oddly enough, Laub goes on to argue, the construction of the West Bank separation fence in the early 2000s, which cuts through the Arab-majority parts of Jerusalem, has helped to encouraged better relations.