When the 2025 Maccabiah Games were canceled last summer due to Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, then-CEO of the Maccabi World Union Amir Gissin envisioned that the competition, pushed back to 2026, would be “bigger than the Olympics.”

“Holding the largest sporting event in the world in Israel [would be] the proper Zionist response to everything we have gone through,” Gissin told The Times of Israel at the time, ostensibly under the assumption that Israel’s wars with its neighbors would be over by now.

But with nuclear talks between the United States and Iran at an impasse, fears of an imminent renewal of fighting make planning anything in Israel difficult these days.

“We didn’t want to be in this situation again, but that’s the reality in Israel now,” said Roy Hessing, who replaced Gissin as the CEO of the Maccabi World Union earlier this year. “This year’s competition isn’t going to be our biggest, but the message we are giving is that the Maccabiah Games are going to go ahead this year.”

Despite concerns and cancellations from delegations from several countries, about 5,000 participants from more than 40 countries are still expected to compete in the two-week international competition that starts on June 30. That’s fewer than the 8,000 athletes that were planning to arrive from 55 countries last year, but a significant competition nonetheless.

Some countries, including Canada, have pulled delegations due to safety concerns, and some of the less-popular sports competitions, like futsal, have been canceled, sources told The Times of Israel.

Travel to Israel is expected to be sharply down this summer, with several airlines, such as Germany’s Lufthansa, saying they are only now........

© The Times of Israel