Earlier this week we featured commentary on a disturbing viral photograph: IDF Under Fire After Troops Caught Destroying Statue Of Jesus With Sledgehammer.
The destruction of the statue took place in the Maronite Christian village of Debel, which is roughly 54 miles to the southeast of Beirut and situated just north of the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Since the onset of the war Israel began waging against Iran in March, Debel has come under heavy fire after a second front was created against Lebanon when the IDF resumed attacks against Hezbollah - and as Hezbollah began once again lobbing missiles into northern Israel.
The demographics of the village are almost entirely Christian, with 99.5% of registered voters adhering to the Christian faith, over 92% of whom are Maronite Catholics. In the 20th century, Christianity - made up chiefly of Lebanese Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers - was actually the majority demographic of the small Mediterranean country.
At this point, Islam is a slight majority, but Christianity is still the most sizeable minority, also with the Lebanese President being a Christian along with top officials. But most of the American public remains ignorant of just how large and visible the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East remain, with many Westerners in general falsely assuming the whole of the Levant is somehow just "the Muslim world."
Increasingly, outlets like Fox News have begun to little by little acknowledge the suffering of Lebanese and Palestinian Christians as Israel's multi-front wars grind on. And this is why it is now such a sensitive issue for the Netanyahu government, which has already long ago lost the support of Tucker Carlson and some other big conservative names, even including some Christian leaders.
As of Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the soldier who struck the statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer, along with the soldier who photographed the incident, will receive 30 days of military detention. They will also be "removed from combat duty" following an inquiry - though there's no indication they will be fully discharged from the army.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the aftermath of the photo circulating said he was "stunned and saddened" by what happened. The IDF in turn expressed "deep regret over the incident" - with the military also saying troops had replaced the damaged statue "in full co-ordination with the local community" shortly afterward.
But despite all of this public relations 'clean-up' - the tragic reality that remains is that Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian Christians will continue to die.