Britney Spears, Israel and the History Christians Cannot Afford to Forget
Recently I commented on a Facebook reel about a celebrity makeover.
That's it. Makeup.
A stylist had dramatically transformed Britney Spears, and while I appreciated the artistry, I thought the makeover was unnecessarily extreme. In my opinion, simplifying the eye makeup would have been enough.
Several people agreed with me. It was an ordinary social-media conversation about an ordinary subject.
Then someone responded:
"You have an Israeli flag as an old pfp. You don't get an opinion lol"
I stared at the comment for a moment.
Not because someone disagreed with me about Israel. They didn't actually say anything about Israel.
They used my support for Israel as a reason to declare that my opinion about makeup was invalid.
And I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Because if a little Israeli flag attached to my Facebook profile is enough for someone to decide that I am no longer entitled to an opinion about something as trivial as eyeliner, what happens when the subject actually is Israel?
What happens when history is involved?
What happens when Christians are involved?
And what happens when the conversation becomes so politically tribal that people stop asking whether something is true and start asking which team believes it?
That little Facebook exchange is what prompted me to write this. I don't expect everyone reading this to agree with me. I don't even expect every Christian reading this to agree with my understanding of the biblical promises concerning Israel. But I do expect us fellow Americans to allow and value the free speech of others- even when we disagree.
So, here on October 7th, I want to talk about Israel. I'm no history expert, foreign policy expert or Bible scholar. I also humbly admit that this topic is much more complicated than can be tackled in one article and I admit I am missing plenty of nuance... Volumes of books have been written on Biblical Israel vs. Modern Israel, Israel in Biblical eschatology, whether the Church has replaced Israel in God's eyes and whether Christians should defend Israel- when there are fellow Believers on both sides of the on-going conflict.
I'm just an American woman with a heart for Jesus and the Israeli people.
Three years ago today terrorists attacked Israel... A day which to the Israeli people, is like our September 11th. It marked the single deadliest day for Jewish people globally since the Holocaust.
The U.S. State Department documented that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups attacked Israel by land and air, killing approximately 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages. The attack included attacks on civilian communities and allegations of sexual violence. U.S. Department of State There were horrific videos of beheadings that were removed from social media, due to their graphic content.
"But Israel wasn't always there..."
The Jewish people did not suddenly appear in 1948. The Jewish connection to the land is ancient and deeply rooted in biblical history, archaeology and Jewish historical continuity. The Jewish connection to the land predates the modern state by thousands of years.
The British Museum describes the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah as historical entities documented through archaeology, inscriptions and material remains. The Metropolitan Museum likewise documents the Israelite monarchy, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian exile. British Museum
And the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum makes an important point: Jews have had historical and religious connections to the Land of Israel for thousands of years, while also emphasizing that modern Zionism (return to a physical land settlement) was a nineteenth-century political movement. Holocaust Encyclopedia
Jewish sovereignty, population and political control changed dramatically over the centuries—but the Jewish people never lost their historical, religious and cultural connection to the land.
The Jewish connection to the land is not modern.
"But Jews were scattered..."
Yes. And this is actually part of the story rather than an argument against it. The disapora was caused by a series of ancient military conquests, forced deportations, and voluntary migrations that dispersed the Jewish population from their ancestral homeland over many centuries.
Diaspora does not mean that a people ceased to exist. Jewish communities survived across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe while maintaining religious traditions, Hebrew texts, prayers directed toward Jerusalem, and an enduring connection to the Land of Israel. The Library of Congress specifically notes the continuity of this connection in Jewish sources and diaspora materials.
While the Jewish people were without a homeland, it made logical sense that Arab peoples would settle that freed up territory.
I believe the biblical promises concerning Israel are not merely ancient poetry or theological metaphor. I believe God made real promises to a real people concerning a real land—and that those promises have not been revoked. I also know faithful, Bible-believing Christians disagree with me about this.
I want to be clear about something before I go any further: I believe God made promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob concerning the land of Israel. I believe those promises matter. I believe they are more than poetic imagery, and I do not believe Christians are free to simply erase them because modern geopolitics has become complicated.
I look at the map and can't deny the fact- Jewish people have never yet occupied the full geographic footprint that God promised to them in the Bible. To me, it's pretty clear that Israel has every right to expand its territory... with a Biblical stamp of approval.
Christianity did not emerge independently of Judaism.
Christianity cannot tell this story as an outsider, but Christianity emerged from Judaism.
Jesus was ethnically Jewish.
The apostles were Jewish.
The Scriptures Jesus read were Jewish Scriptures.
The earliest Christian movement was a mix of Jews and Gentiles... but had a deeply Jewish heritage.
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:3 (ESV)
The Hebrew Scriptures are our Scriptures.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ruth, Esther, Daniel...
Christianity inherited Israel's Scriptures, concepts of covenant, sin, redemption and the history of God's dealings with Israel.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures' long awaited Messiah.
We've also inherited a catalog of children's Bible stories... of Moses and Joshua and that trek to the Promised Land. Conflict over the land of Israel is the primary geographic focal point of biblical end-times prophecy. Across both the Old and New Testaments, the scriptures outline a timeline where the nation of Israel is restored, besieged by global alliances, and ultimately delivered through divine intervention. (See: Ezekiel 38 , Zechariah 14, Revelation)
The American Connection
America's culture has been influenced by the Judeo-Christian ethic from our founding.
Signer of the Declaration of Independence Benjamin Rush once said,
"I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament."
(More of these such quotes from our Founding Fathers regarding faith can be found here.)
America has also been a protector (although imperfect) of the Jewish people. The Nazis murdered approximately six million Jews. When the war ended, enormous numbers of Jewish survivors had nowhere safe to go.
At the end of 1946, approximately 250,000 Jewish displaced persons were living in camps in Allied-occupied Germany, Austria and Italy. America did take 130,000 to 140,000 Jewish refugees post-war. But still, the Jewish people had no single safe homeland of their own.
"Stop Genocide"
So, when I hear "Stop Genocide"
I think this:
I believe we learned the Holocaust was the ultimate warning about what happens when Jews have nowhere safe to go. Therefore Israel's existence and security should be especially important.
Strange Bedfellows
That brings us back to today- October 7th, 2026- and our unusual political climate.
We are living in a very unique time in which both the Alt-Right (Conservative Movement) and the Democratic Socialists of America (Liberal Movement) have both arrived at conclusions that are hostile to the Jewish people for very different reasons.
The Left
For the DSA, Israel is seen as fundamentally a settler- colonial project. As they see America itself through the same lens... seeing colonialism as a system where powerful countries take control of other people's lands, resources, and lives to make a profit. They consider the creation of a Jewish state to be racist- as it led to the displacement, dispossession, and denial of return for hundreds of thousands during the creation of Israel in 1948. Prominent voices who ascribe to this view include: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY- D), New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-D).
Facts of Note: The United States does not recognize the State of Palestine as a country. Washington recognizes the Palestinian Authority (PA) as an interim self-governing body, but does not extend sovereign state recognition. Those who call themselves Palestinians are ethnically Arab.
The Right
For Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson and the like (nationalist/alt-right) Jews are treated with suspicion. From a desire for "America First" policies, it has turned to fear that Israel is not just a strong ally, but is actively puppeteering America. If you remember former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan from the 1980s... his isolationist views would have also put him broadly in this camp of thought. Since the assassination of Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, the voices from this stream of Conservatism have become louder and more mainstream.
From both ends of the political spectrum we are increasingly hearing rhetoric that ranges from distrust of Israel to passionate pro-Palestinian activism.
The Wrong Side of History? "The nation is like a mighty lion; When it is sleeping, no one dares wake it. Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, And whoever curses Israel will be cursed.” Numbers 24:9
American Jews aren't Israeli politicians- and they are being persecuted
October 7th was one day. The War in Gaza has been going on ever since. That means a few days of beheadings videos vs. a three-year constant stream of photos/video of sad children's faces, building rubble, and difficult living conditions.
Regardless of what some may say, social media is a very important piece in influencing public opinion. I believe this has certainly been the case during the Gaza War. Public sentiment has increasingly turned against Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership- and from there... the Jewish people worldwide.
A Jewish family in North Carolina, New York, California or Illinois isn't responsible for Benjamin Netanyahu. A synagogue isn't the Israeli government. Yet antisemitic incidents in America surged following October 7. ADL recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023, its highest number since tracking began in 1979; more than 5,200 occurred between October 7 and the end of that year. ADL
And this isn't merely an abstraction. Pew found that nine-in-ten American Jews surveyed in 2024 believed discrimination against Jews had increased since the war began, while 93% said the way Hamas carried out October 7 was unacceptable.
But... What About Britney Spears??
The day after this baffling response to my opinion... on make-up, I post the earlier screenshot and asked how I should respond. Whether good or bad- I did choose to respond. I'm sure some would say my wording didn't pass the WWJD test.
I also took the advice to change my profile flag back to the flag of Israel (which I have previously done in honor of October 7th.) I have covered up the personal info for their privacy.
I have two items which I believe are noteworthy regarding this response (and the other screenshot which I am posting as well.
First, it took effort for people to come after me, so to speak.
I have no idea why the woman looking at my comment about Britney Spears's make-up decided to comb through my profile, find an old profile picture of the Israeli flag and attempt to silence me. (Oh, I forgot the "lol".) In the second situation, the person literally looked up my business email address and sent me an email. Again, timing-wise email had to have been related to Britney Spears make-up comment. This was prior to me changing my profile photo to the Israeli flag.
Secondly, most kind commenters (friends and those who seemed to have my best interest in mind) wanted me to simply let that make-up comment go unanswered. I appreciate your sweet spirit. I know a person must pick and choose their battles. But as I was told that my voice did not count, this poem clearly came to mind...
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." -Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), a German pastor and theologian
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