While AJ Edelman and Menachem Chen were flying down the icy track at Cortina d’Ampezzo on Monday, making Olympic history as part of Israel’s first-ever Winter Games bobsled team, Swiss broadcaster Stefan Renna had other plans for his airtime. Instead of calling the race, Renna spent nearly two minutes of Radio Television Suisse’s live coverage accusing Edelman of “supporting genocide in Gaza” and questioning whether the Israeli captain deserved to compete at all. It was not sports commentary. It was a political ambush dressed up as journalism.

Renna described Edelman as “a first-time Olympian and self-described ‘Zionist to the core’ who has posted several messages on social media in support of the genocide in Gaza.” He cited a UN Commission of Inquiry — notably a non-legal panel that does not speak for the UN itself — as his authority for calling what Israel is doing in Gaza “genocide,” a charge Israel has categorically rejected as “distorted and false.” He then drew a comparison between Israeli athletes competing freely and Russian athletes competing under restrictions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, implying that Edelman’s Zionism and his social media posts warranted the same treatment.

What makes the whole exercise remarkable is that Renna himself acknowledged, mid-broadcast, that the IOC rules he was citing apply exclusively to Russian athletes permitted to compete as “individual neutral athletes.” They do not apply to Edelman. There was no rule violation. There was no legitimate controversy. There was only a broadcaster using two minutes of Olympic airtime to put an Israeli Jewish athlete on trial before a global audience while that athlete was in the middle of competing.

RTS later pulled the segment from its website, claiming it was removed “due to its length,” not its content. The network’s statement to Reuters said Renna “wished to question the IOC’s policy regarding the statements made by the athlete concerned” and that the information was “factual” — a characterization that itself requires scrutiny, given that calling Israel’s military campaign a “genocide” adopts the language of a non-binding, non-judicial UN panel whose conclusion Israel, the United States, and others have firmly rejected.

The charge of illegitimacy against Israel is not new. It predates the modern state by millennia. What Renna did on that Swiss broadcast — reduce an Israeli athlete’s Olympic run to a platform for accusing Jews of genocide — is the latest iteration of a very old pattern. The specific accusation changes. The underlying impulse does not.

Edelman’s response was measured and proud. “Shul Runnings is a team of six proud Israelis who’ve made it to the Olympic stage,” he wrote on social media. “No coach with us. No big program. Just a dream, grit, and unyielding pride in who we represent. Because that’s what Israelis do.” He added on Tuesday morning, “Victors, never victims.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the broadcast “beyond disgusting,” describing Renna as a “Jew-hating Swiss ‘sportscaster'” who “spewed bigotry and bile” at the team. Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar called on the IOC to condemn RTS and keep the games free of politics. The Olympic Committee of Israel issued a formal demand for an apology, stating flatly that “Edelman meets all the criteria set by the International Olympic Committee and is eligible to participate in the Games. Any attempt to imply otherwise is baseless.”

RTS has not apologized. Renna has faced no known disciplinary action.

The Israeli bobsled team came in last — 26th out of 26 — in Monday’s two-man heats. They are competing again on Tuesday in the final two-man run and are entered in the four-man event beginning Saturday. Whatever happens on the ice, the team has already demonstrated something no broadcaster can take from them: Israel showed up, competed with chutzpah — boldness — and refused to be silenced. For a nation that has faced existential threats from armies, terrorists, and international tribunals alike, a hostile Swiss sportscaster is, in the end, a minor obstacle on a long and familiar road.