Why Christians need to stop backing the wrong underdog

Since the massacre that took place on October 7 in Israel, I’ve witnessed something very sinister taking place across the United Kingdom. And unfortunately it has even bewitched many of us in the Church. We’ve started believing the wrong underdog story.

When Jihadi terrorists savagely attacked, raped, captured and murdered over 1,000 innocent Israelis, you’d think that the global community would respond in utter outrage, taking to the streets to demand the release of the hostages and an end to Hamas. But instead, the opposite has happened. We’ve seen a huge increase in anti-semitism in Britain (up by 1,350%), mass anti-Israel protests with well documented cases of anti-semitism in London, and even calls for another intifada - an uprising against the world’s only Jewish state.

As a Christian living in Britain who spent my teenage years growing up in Jerusalem, I couldn’t understand it. How could this possibly be happening?

I decided to post and repost some of the real-time stories and first-hand commentary coming from my friends in Israel, in hopes that I could help stem or even turn the tide. But instead, I received backlash from some of my British followers on social media claiming I was spreading war propaganda.

I was hopeful that British churches at least would turn up the heat on their prayers for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122) and express their support for Israel and the many hostages still being held in Gaza as I write these words. After all, it isn’t long since we all witnessed widespread prayer taking place for Ukraine, with special services and concerts being held as vigils. It seems churches were permitted to be political and support Ukraine’s struggle against Russia. Yet with this conflict, many churches and church leaders have been silent. Why were they displaying such blatant hypocrisy?

Slowly, I began to realise what was going on. A false narrative had begun to grip this nation. Even though the Prime Minister himself had clearly stated that there weren’t two sides to this traumatic story, and that Israel had every right to defend itself, some media outlets began to paint a picture where Israel was the aggressor, and Gaza the victim. The BBC even refused to call Hamas terrorists.

Then it went from bad to worse. People started to believe the conflated numbers of Palestinian casualties coming from Hamas itself. Once the new narrative had taken root, more and more attention was given to stories which painted Gaza as the underdog - not Israel. And all it did was give legitimacy to Hamas’ genocidal agenda.

It was as if the British people found it easier to believe that Israel was this bloodthirsty hell-bent-on-revenge war machine, guilty of collective punishment, and poor Gaza just had a handful of freedom fighters who got a little carried away. But the truth is that Hamas is responsible for every single death in both Gaza and Israel. These cowards choose to hide behind civilian human shields. And they refuse to release the Israeli hostages, knowing full well that the war would be over the moment they did so. Their stated goal is to eradicate Israel from the face of the map. Hamas’ leaders aren’t even in Gaza; they couldn’t care less about the civilian population.

Let us comfort God’s chosen people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem

Israel is still outnumbered by Arab nations 630 to 1. Despite 76 years of being an internationally recognised modern nation (born in a day, as prophesied in Isaiah 66:8), not to mention the recipients of a 4,000 year old land title deed by God himself (Genesis 17:8), there are still those who would seek to annihilate Israel and the Jewish people. In case you hadn’t noticed, Israel is - and always will be - the greatest underdog story in history.

As British Christians, can we please stop believing the wrong narratives? Instead, can we choose to return to the truth and promises we find in the Bible? Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse her will be cursed (Genesis 12:3; Numbers 24:9). Let us comfort God’s chosen people and speak tenderly to Jerusalem (Isaiah 40:1-2), especially at this time, as we look forward to when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26).

We must consider carefully which news outlets we expose ourselves to, and discern which Israel related ministries we should donate to. There is too much at stake for us to simply bury our heads in the sand, or worse, continue to perpetuate the wrong underdog story.

In fact, I would suggest that Israeli Jewish believers in the land - our own brothers and sisters in the Lord - are the best source from whom to glean information and wisdom about events that are happening there right now. You can hear more from them through maozisrael.org