Two weeks ago, Joel Berry, the managing editor of the satirical Babylon Bee, tried to defend the Israeli surprise attack on Iran by framing it as a boon for evangelical Christianity.
Evangelical Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Iran, and Israel just surgically took out their persecutors.
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) June 13, 2025
Twelve hours earlier, Glenn Beck shared a prayer in which he asked God to forgive and guide the Israelis, whom he describes as “[His] chosen people,” as they “strike at the head of the snake.”
Heavenly Father, please protect Israel and her people …your chosen people. Forgive them and guide them as they strike at the head of the snake. We pray that you spare innocent lives and provide swift justice to those who forsake your name. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) June 13, 2025
Unfortunately, many American Christians find themselves defending a country that routinely commits atrocities against innocent civilians, many of them Christians. Shortly after the Gaza War began, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bombed the Church of Saint Porphyrius, where hundreds of Palestinians had sought shelter. At least eighteen were killed, including several relatives of former Michigan Congressman Justin Amash. One was his second cousin George, who was only a baby.
Back in January, Bee CEO Seth Dillon was asked why he, as a Christian, was so obsessed with defending Israel. His response:
The better question is, “Why do some Christians fail to share Paul’s heart for Israel?” https://t.co/KZ4T9DnPnW pic.twitter.com/UXNggT6Qiu
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) January 16, 2025
Of course, the State of Israel was founded in 1948, nearly 2,000 years after Paul the Apostle expressed his anguish.
The Babylon Bee, which purports to specialize in Christian news satire, has been shameless in its support for Israel’s genocidal assault on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. But what makes the Bee’s commentary on the war so insulting is the manner in which it uses Scripture to couch its support for the indefensible. For example, in an article titled “Boy David Condemned For Violently Attacking Peaceful Palestinian Giant,” the Bee tries to make the laughable assertion that Israel is the underdog in the conflict. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 15,613 Palestinian children have been killed in the war. Contrast that figure with the thirty-three Israeli children who have been killed over the course of the conflict. Every child’s death is monstrous and indefensible, but given the asymmetrical nature of the Palestinian death toll, any comparisons between Goliath and Palestine are delusional.
Of course, The Babylon Bee loves to insist that Israel is put upon. In a piece titled “Biden Demands Israel Fight Rest Of War Using Nerf Guns,” the Bee attempts to paint the Biden administration as insufficiently committed to the Israeli cause. But the month before the Bee published that piece, Joe Biden signed off on an Israeli arms package that included billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets. The deal included 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, none of which can be used in a region as densely populated as the Gaza Strip without inflicting heavy civilian casualties. So much for the Nerf gun analogy.
Equally tasteless are the Bee’s efforts to downplay the genocidal nature of Israel’s war. In an article titled “Israel Warns Civilians To Evacuate Rafah In Most Incompetent Genocide Ever,” the Bee whitewashes the IDF’s disregard for civilian life by painting its Rafah offensive in terms that are more palatable. The piece seeks to justify the Israeli incursion by pointing to the IDF’s evacuation orders as evidence of its ostensible concern for Palestinian noncombatants. Never mind the intensity of its carpet-bombing campaign, its habit of bombing “safe zones,” or the implausibility of a safe evacuation. According to the Bee, the IDF deserves the benefit of the doubt because it warns its captives before bombing them.
Even the Bee’s attempts at mocking left-wing pro-Palestinian protesters come across as exceedingly lame. Some articles (“Harvard Crew Team Unveils New U-Boat”) promote the delusional fiction that Ivy League universities are hotbeds of anti-Semitism. Others (“‘Not All Calls For Genocide Are Bad,’ Say Ivy League Presidents Sporting Cool New Mustaches”) dutifully promote the notion that such institutions should crack down on anti-Israel speech. A more thoughtful satirical news outlet would instead highlight an obvious irony that few have noted. For over a decade, woke college students embraced the very speech codes that are now being wielded against them. Even today, a year and a half after the pro-Israel censorship machine kicked into high gear, many of these students continue to embrace the very ideology that laid the groundwork for this latest crackdown on free expression.
Contrast The Babylon Bee’s support for the annihilation of Gaza with an article published in The American Conservative back in April, condemning Israel’s war from a Christian perspective. In “What Would Jesus Do?,” George D. O’Neill Jr. offers a long overdue critique of Christian Zionism, which he correctly faults for “enabling the starvation and slaughter of Palestinians while underwriting broader wars that have decimated ancient Christian communities across the Middle East.” O’Neill uses the bloody history behind Israel’s founding to contextualize Christian Zionism’s rejection of Jesus Christ and His teachings. He also blames pastors like Robert Jeffress and John Hagee, as well as C.I. Scofield and his famous Scofield Reference Bible, for promoting the dubious position that Christian support for Israel is a “divine mandate.” O’Neill’s article provides a valuable counterweight to the Bee’s heretical and morally unsound pronouncements on Israel and the Gaza War.
Antiwar.com news editor Dave DeCamp recently proposed a non-Zionist alternative to The Babylon Bee. I don’t know how big the audience for such a publication would be, but given the volume of pushback the Bee receives every time it publishes a piece lionizing Israel, DeCamp’s idea might be worth exploring.
Who wants to start a Catholic, non-Zionist version of the Babylon Bee with me? pic.twitter.com/tG56LoOE8C
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) May 21, 2025
Of course, there’s always the possibility that The Babylon Bee will see Israel for the genocidal state that it is. Just last week, Joel Berry tweeted the following:
One good thing to do if you’re anti-war is to prevent a desert tribe of bloodthirsty religious cultists from obtaining nukes
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) June 17, 2025
Unfortunately for Berry, Israel already has atomic weapons. But his point still stands. A nuclear Israel is a grave threat to humanity. Until the United States eliminates Israel’s ability to conduct wars of annihilation, the world will never come close to knowing peace.
