An IDF soldier in southern Lebanon took a sledgehammer to a statue of Jesus this week. The IDF confirmed it. The image went viral. And I am furious.
Not because our enemies will use it against us; they will. Not because the world is watching; they are. I’m furious because it is wrong. Full stop. No “but.” Wrong.
Let’s start with the facts. The incident took place in Debel, a Christian village in southern Lebanon. The IDF confirmed the footage is authentic, called the soldier’s conduct “wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” opened an investigation, and pledged to help restore the statue. Good. That is what a moral army does. We should be proud of that response.
But we need to talk about the culture that produced this moment. Because this isn’t one soldier who had a bad day. This is a symptom.
Who is actually standing with us?
Every Israeli and every Jew in the world should be asking this question right now: Who is standing with Israel in this fight?
Look at Africa. Israel’s friends there are overwhelmingly Christian-majority nations. Look at Europe. The people marching with Israeli flags outside embassies in Warsaw, Budapest, and London are Evangelical Christians, Catholic conservatives, and charismatic believers – not the secular Left, which has largely abandoned us.
Look at America. Israel’s most passionate, most consistent, most politically active supporters are the tens of millions of Evangelical Christians who consider Israel’s existence a matter of biblical importance.
And closer to home: a Middle East with a stronger Christian presence is a Middle East that is better for Jews and better for Israel. The Christians of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq are ancient communities that are being driven out and destroyed; their disappearance is not good for us. Every Christian community that survives in this region is a community that does not share the jihadist vision of what this neighborhood should look like. Christians and Jews are not rivals in this civilizational struggle. We are on the same side, facing the same enemy.
The history argument doesn’t hold
Some readers are already composing a response. The Crusades. The Inquisition. The pogroms. The Church’s silence during the Holocaust.
I know that history. I don’t minimize it. It is dark, it is real – and it is over.
The Evangelicals in Texas praying for Jerusalem are not the inquisitors of medieval Spain. The Polish Catholics lighting candles at Yad Vashem are not the perpetrators of Kielce. We understand, when it comes to Germany and Japan, that history is not destiny.
We have to apply that same logic here.
The Christians of 2026 who march for Israel, donate to Israeli causes, and send their politicians to vote on our behalf are not our ancestors’ persecutors. If we treat them as such, we will lose the only friends we have.
Our enemies are already weaponizing this incident. Palestinian politicians are tweeting. Al Jazeera is running it on a loop. They want one soldier with a sledgehammer to stand for the entirety of Israel and the Jewish people. We should reject that framing loudly and confidently.
Don’t let our enemies define us by our deviants
Here is what actually defines Israel: our leadership condemned this immediately. Our military opened an investigation within hours. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been, arguably, the most genuinely pro-Christian political figure in Israeli history, cultivating relationships with Christian communities, Evangelical leaders, and Christian minorities across the region. That is the real Israel. The soldier with the sledgehammer is the deviant. He is not the norm.
And if Israel wants to play offense on this issue, here is a thought: start telling the story of what Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS, and Iran have done to Christians. The ancient Christian communities of Iraq – gone; Syrian Christians – slaughtered and displaced. Christians in Gaza living under Hamas have no religious freedom whatsoever.
The jihadist movement is engaged in a slow-motion extermination of Christianity from the Middle East. Israel is the one country in this region where Christian communities are protected and growing. That is the story we should be telling every single day.
No excuses
I want to preempt the deflections. “Hezbollah uses Christian villages.” Maybe, but irrelevant to what this soldier did. “There are worse things happening.” Of course, but that doesn’t make this acceptable. “It’s a PR problem.” No. It is a moral problem. The PR consequences are simply what happens when you behave badly on camera.
The Religious Freedom Data Center documented over 200 incidents of violence against Christians, primarily Orthodox Jews targeting clergy or individuals displaying Christian symbols, between January 2024 and September 2025. This incident follows Israeli forces blocking the Palm Sunday procession earlier this year.
This is a pattern. And it is a failure of education. We are raising children in some communities who see a cross and feel hostility, who have absorbed historical trauma and turned it against people who are not our enemies. Parents, rabbis, schools: this must change. Because those children grow up to be soldiers, and soldiers carry their values into the field.
Wake up. Condemn this. Demand accountability. Change the culture that made it possible.
Because the statue can be restored. But the trust – if we keep breaking it – may not be.
The writer is the executive director of Israel365 Action and co-host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.