A photo of an Israeli soldier tearing down a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon has sparked outrage in the United States, drawing anger from Israelis, including from parts of US President Donald Trump’s base.
Although the incident is just one of a wide range of atrocities committed against Israel in the region in recent years, it drew worldwide condemnation and prompted a response from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the US, where support for Israel was not once challenged – especially in right-wing circles that claim to support Christian values – the desecration of the Christian religious symbol has heightened the criticism the Israeli government is facing from some Republicans.
Right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, a former Trump ally, said, “You would never know it by consuming American corporate media, but this kind of incident is not rare.”
“The Israeli government has allowed its soldiers to behave like barbarians for decades, all the while receiving generous funding from the United States. The only difference between now and the past is that social media has exposed Israel’s behavior to the world,” Carlson wrote in his newsletter on Monday.
‘Horrible’
Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – who split with Trump over his aggressive foreign policy – highlighted that Israel receives billions of dollars in US military aid each year.
“‘Our greatest ally’ who takes billions of our tax dollars and weapons every year,” she wrote in a comment on X in response to the photo, which shows an Israeli soldier taking a sledgehammer to the head of a Jesus statue.
“Terrible,” said Matt Gaetz, another former Republican congressman and Trump ally.
For his part, independent journalist Glenn Greenwald mocked how Christian Zionists could defend Israel over statue demolition.
“Christian Zionist: This Israeli soldier was justified in breaking the head of the statue of Jesus Christ because Hezbollah and Hamas were hiding inside. We are grateful to him,” Greenwald wrote on X.
This anger echoes growing skepticism of a closer alliance with Israel among Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) constituency.
Trump is already facing pressure over joining Israel in starting a war against Iran, which has sent oil prices soaring. Earlier on Monday, the US President addressed and refuted claims that Netanyahu had dragged the US into the conflict.
Recent opinion polls show that support for Israel in the US is at a historically low level.
While Israel still enjoys nearly unanimous Republican support in Congress, the consensus is beginning to weaken, partly due to the prolonged war in the Middle East and attacks on Christians fueling dissent by people like Carlson.
Israel says it will investigate
The desecration of the statue, which took place near the town of Debel in southern Lebanon, prompted an unusually quick reaction from the highest levels of the Israeli government, according to local reports.
“I condemn this act in the strongest possible terms. Military authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into the matter and will take appropriate harsh disciplinary action against the perpetrator,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday.
Israel rarely holds its soldiers accountable for abuses, including sexual violence, in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
Netanyahu, who is avoiding an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges in Gaza through 2024, argued that Israel treats Christians better than any other country in the region.
The Israeli Prime Minister claimed, “While Christians are being massacred by Muslims in Syria and Lebanon, the Christian population in Israel is thriving unlike elsewhere in the Middle East.”
“Israel is the only country in the region where the Christian population and living standards are increasing.”
Lebanon has the largest per capita Christian population in the Middle East, and its president is a Maronite Catholic.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar joined Netanyahu in condemning the desecration of the statue, saying it was “completely contrary” to Israeli values.
But while Israel’s supporters tried to portray the desecration of the statue as an isolated mistake by a soldier, the incident reflects a pattern of Israeli attacks against houses of worship, including churches.
In 2024, Israeli soldiers filmed a fake wedding between two soldiers in a church in Der Mimas, Lebanon, and vandalized the building.
Also last year, an Israeli tank demolished a statue of St. George in the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon.
Israel has bombed Palestinian churches several times since the beginning of its genocidal war in Gaza, including an attack that killed at least 18 people in 2023.
According to local officials, Israel destroyed more than 1,000 mosques and three churches in Gaza during the war.
Catholic leaders respond
The Congregation of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land condemned the attack on the statue on Monday.
“This act is a serious insult to the Christian faith and adds to other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by (Israeli) soldiers in southern Lebanon,” it said in a statement.
“It also exposes a disturbing failure in moral and human formation, in which even the most basic reverence for the sanctity and dignity of others has been seriously compromised.”
The incident occurred after Israeli troops completely destroyed homes and civilian infrastructure in dozens of Lebanese villages to prevent residents from returning to them.
“The outrage should not be about the destroyed statue of Jesus – that is too disgusting,” Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac wrote in a social media post on Monday.
“The real outrage is the targeting of civilians, the assault on human dignity, the destruction in Gaza and Lebanon. War is bad. We need accountability.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Trump and Congress to intervene and end Israeli violations following the destruction of the statue.
“For years, our government has ignored and enabled continued Israeli attacks on churches and Christians in Lebanon, Gaza, and elsewhere,” CAIR said.
“Our message to American public officials is simple: If you continue to send more weapons and provide political cover for Israel’s wicked actions, you own what you see in this picture.”
