We were exposed to an incident that can be described as nothing less than a public diplomacy attack, the kind whose damage is hard to repair even with a thousand words from the IDF spokesman and the country's leadership, from the president to the prime minister and the foreign minister.
An Israeli soldier, in an unrestrained act of religious vandalism, smashed a statue of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, in the village of Debel in southern Lebanon. It is clear that he was not alone, but was with other soldiers, one of whom filmed the incident while the others, I assume, watched. This was not merely the smashing of stone. It was the smashing of the faith and dignity of billions of Christians around the world, an act that sends dangerous diplomatic shockwaves far beyond Lebanon's borders. It was also an act that led all the leaders of the Christian world and all Christian organizations to condemn it, while exposing the incident to hundreds of millions of people around the world, especially Christians.
It is hard to understand what goes through the mind of a soldier who chooses to behave in such a disgraceful manner. What "victory" was he looking for among the fragments of the statue? What tactical gain did he imagine he would achieve? And how is this connected to the fighting against the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon? The answer is clear: There is no connection, and certainly no gain. There is only public diplomacy and strategic damage. While the Foreign Ministry and Israel's diplomatic apparatus work to cultivate the support of the international community and the Christian world, an act like this comes along and tears down bridges of trust built over years, into which millions of shekels have been invested.
In the international arena, such acts carry a clear price. Damage to religious symbols is not perceived as a "lapse by a lone soldier," but as a violation of international law, which protects freedom of religion and holy sites. In the age of social media, a single image showing the statue of Christianity's most senior religious figure being struck in the head with a hammer and shattered to pieces becomes a weapon. It collapses the entire narrative Israel has been trying to build since October 2023, and instead helps isolate Israel and Israelis everywhere in the world, including in countries whose leaders or governments are considered friendly to Israel. The US is just one small example.
Over the past two years, we have seen similar incidents, such as the tearing of a Quran in one of the mosques in the Gaza Strip, with the video of the soldier who did it still circulating widely online. Every such incident is a step backward in normalization efforts or in attempts to build regional alliances. One need not be Christian to be shocked by what happened in the village of Debel. It is enough to be a person with cultural sensitivity to understand that the sanctity of religion, any religion, is a space in which red lines must not be crossed. The problem Israeli public diplomacy is now facing is the image that has been created: one of unrestrained force that undermines the Israeli claim of having "the most moral army in the world."
It is true that the IDF and Israel's political echelon rushed to condemn the incident and promised to put the soldier on trial and punish him severely. But no press release or statement by a leader will repair the reputational damage in world capitals and on social media. Now that the IDF leadership understands the depth of the failure, it must incorporate cultural sensitivity into military training, because in the world, and especially in the Middle East, respect for religion is not a "bonus." It is an important diplomatic and security tool. And ignorance carries a heavy price.
