Why American Marathon Runners Should Take a Stand for Religious Freedom at the Olympics

In what seems like a real-life version of the classic film Chariots of Fire, the Sabbath-observant Israeli runner Beatie Deutsch faces a predicament regarding the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Nathan Lewin explains:

[T]he marathons—initially slated for a Sunday in 2020—are now rescheduled for a Saturday in 2021. [Deutsch] is an award-winning marathon runner who competes in a skirt, headscarf, and elbow-length sleeves. She won the Life-Time Miami women’s half-marathon in February 2020. She will probably represent Israel in the Tokyo event, but she will be able to run only if the race is not held on Shabbat.

[Since] the age of sports stars’ political neutrality is gone, [now] is the opportunity for the American marathon team . . . to emulate the basketball and baseball all-stars [protesting for social justice]. They and other American competitors in the Olympics should notify the Japanese Olympic officials that they will race only if no religious barrier is imposed that might cast a shadow over the fairness of the contest.

The American runners who have qualified to run in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics surely do not want potential triumphs to be marred by the disqualification of a runner who can’t compete because the adjusted schedule—moving the marathon from Sunday to Saturday—made it impossible for her to race. They can, and should, forcefully communicate this message to the Tokyo organizers.

Read more at JNS

More about: olympics, Shabbat, Sports

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.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF