Religious Groups Must Look Past Religious Freedom

Harking back to the origins of our ideas of religious freedom in 16th-century England, and surveying the political conflicts relating to religion in 21st-century America, Yuval Levin urges religious traditionalists to broaden their horizons as they set their agenda for public life. Social conservatives, he argues, have much to learn from Jewish traditionalists, who understand that “civil law doesn’t have to reflect every one of their moral convictions as long as it leaves them the room to have a meaningful community life.” At the same time, Jews must learn from conservative Christians that the outcome of today’s political fights over marriage, family life, and other matters will ultimately affect them as well. (Interview by Eric Cohen. Audio, 42 minutes.)

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More about: Jewish conservatism, John Locke, Religion & Holidays, Religion and politics, Religious Freedom

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

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More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF