The Biden Administration Is Abandoning Religious College Students

Last week, the Department of Education announced its intention to a repeal a 2020 rule formulated to safeguard campus religious groups. The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty explains its objections to this move:

As currently written, [the rules] expressly protect the right of religious student groups to reserve their leadership positions for individuals who share the groups’ religious beliefs and practices. The department’s proposed rule would completely remove that protection. This would leave religious minorities, especially those that might be unpopular, to the whims of campus majorities.

In an attempt to soften the blow . . . the notice of proposed rulemaking claims that “rescinding these regulations would not affect” schools’ obligations to “comply with First Amendment guarantees.” We find that language highly ambiguous. . . .

A plain reading of the notice of proposed rulemaking forces us to believe that the department intends to deprive religious students of vital protections. . . . Contrary to the proposed rule’s assurances, current First Amendment jurisprudence is not an adequate substitute for the existing regulations’ protection. Existing Supreme Court precedent is ambiguous and has led to confusion that leaves religious students vulnerable. Currently, this department’s regulations are the clearest and most dependable protection for such students. In fact, the notice of proposed rulemaking surprisingly cites the uncertainty of judicial remedies as one of the reasons why the department is revoking the regulations.

Read more at Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty

More about: Education, Freedom of Religion, Joseph Biden

 

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