Jesus Christ once famously said, “No man can serve two masters,” and he was absolutely right.

Two firsts are, after all, by nature mutually exclusive. The teaching can apply to plenty of life situations but it hits particularly close to home these days when it comes to discussions of national loyalty between Israel and the United States.

When American politicians, media figures, and online influencers seem to have an unhealthy attachment to the goings-on in a country that isn’t America — especially when they ruthlessly attack and malign people who disagree with them  — it’s hard to imagine them having any energy or emotion left to care about their own country, much less put it first.

We are told that it’s an antisemitic canard to question the loyalty of certain Israel-focused Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, who clearly seem to be far more interested in a country halfway across the world than their own, as if the charge is de facto always false. We aren’t supposed to notice, apparently, when once-beloved conservative figure Mark Levin habitually responds to even the mildest Israel critics with hysterical, illogical X posts and red-faced rants on Fox News, or when he travels to Israel to speak at a conference and cozy up to Benjamin Netanyahu while castigating the Trump administration’s efforts for peace in the war against Iran.

Or when Randy Fine, a U.S. congressman who once weirdly posted that when he first shook Netanyahu’s hand “I did not wash it until I could touch the heads of my children,” publicly disparages our vice president for trying to get Israel to restrain itself and low-key hopes Israel sabotages the Iran peace deal.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a news conference in Jerusalem on June 15, 2026. Netanyahu said on June 15 that he intended to run in elections scheduled for later this year, as he faced domestic criticism over his handling of the Middle East war and its aftermath. (Photo by RONEN ZVULUN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Or even when Ambassador Mike Huckabee, not Jewish but an avowed Christian Zionist who in his position is tragically suffering from an extreme case of “localitis” (poor guy, do pray for him), counter-signals support for Israel’s strikes in Lebanon even as the Trump administration is attempting to get them to stop so a peace deal has a fighting chance to hold.

Would any of those men, or other comically Israel-First influencers like Ben Shapiro and Laura Loomer, or other Christian Zionist figures like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, actively and knowingly sabotage America in favor of Israel? I would truly hope not, and I’m genuinely not questioning their motives.

In their minds — and I’m guessing here because I can’t read minds — they probably think they can absolutely be loyal to both the United States and Israel because the interests of the two countries rarely, if ever, diverge.

To them, probably, America First IS Israel First, and Israel First IS America First.

If I were them and I truly had good intentions, that’s how I would reason it, anyway. So I’m not casting stones, just asking questions.

Indeed, it would be one thing if the interests of Israel and the United States WERE perfectly aligned across the board. That’s what the Israel lobby has been selling us for decades — that Israel is our “greatest ally,” a bulwark of civilization in a Middle East filled with scimitar-wielding, head-chopping Islamists who push gays off balconies and cover their women with burqas. We are joined at the hip, and whatever good happens to them is good for us, and vice versa.

But is this entirely true? I’m sure some of it is, or was. Until the war with Iran, most people didn’t have any reason to question it. But now that the fruits of this war are beginning to come full circle, they do. (RELATED: Here Are The 3 Factions Slipping Poison Pills Into Trump’s Peace Process)

To put it mildly, Americans are suffering. Prices are up, wages are down, and even Trump’s much-ballyhooed stock market is stagnant. So when you choose to start a war that every sane economist knew would spike oil and gas prices on day one, you might as well be pouring gas on an already burning building.

And here is where U.S. and Israeli interests diverge the most, because, to be frank, Israel doesn’t give a sh*t about oil and gas prices or even the global economy, at least in comparison to what it sees as its broader security goals in Iran. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key cog in the global energy supply chain, is, according to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, a “low priority for Israel.”

In other words, let the world eat cake.

What are Republican midterm losses or even a global depression compared to taking this once-in-a-generation opportunity to diminish a primary regional adversary and casually conquer some easy lebensraum in Lebanon, amirite? Come hell or high water, Israel’s Likud Party is going to implement policies that in their minds put Israel first. We can certainly argue about whether those policies are actually good for Israel in the long run (they aren’t), but one thing is certain, their calculus includes zero consideration of the well-being of the United States or the American people.

From any sane, non-brainwashed American’s perspective, however, handing the country over to Democrats and making it harder to run our businesses and feed our families in order to accomplish Israel’s goals seems completely absurd. Point this out, though, and suggest Americans should put America first and, well, you’ll probably get called an “antisemite.” (RELATED: Democratic Party Establishment Facing Reckoning After Far-Leftists Win Power)

For all his faults, Donald Trump seems to genuinely care about the well-being of the American people. No, he should have never started this war, but I’m thankful that he is looking for it to end. I’m also thankful to see signs that he could be shifting his opinions on Israel and perhaps may not be so gullible the next time they try to lure us into a pointless Middle Eastern war. At heart, Trump is America First.

Are the politicians, media figures, and influencers who want this war to continue also America First, or are they more beholden to a foreign country? Another famous quote from Jesus Christ seems particularly applicable here: “You will know them by their fruits.”