Reviewing the Israeli series Shtisel, which explores the everyday trials and tribulations of a ḥaredi family in Jerusalem, Shai Secunda praises its success in making artistic use of the minutiae of their society’s life:

To its credit, Shtisel does not exoticize the profound differences between secularism and the rigidity of the ultra-Orthodox world. Instead, it [creates] a rich modern portrait of a community at turns at war with or oblivious of what most of its audience considers essential aspects of modern living. . . .

Like a great novel, Shtisel manages to imbue small moments with human substance and dramatic heft. On the day marking the conclusion of the year-long mourning period for the family matriarch, the extended Shtisel clan recites the traditional Psalms at her grave and then returns home to a meal of heymishe food and a first taste of the music that had been forbidden to them as mourners. As the chatter dies down, Shulem, [the paterfamilias], announces that “the moment has arrived” and ceremoniously presses play on an old cassette player. The saccharine strains of the [ultra-Orthodox] Jerusalem Boys Choir fill the room. The scene could easily have been played for comedy (the incongruity of the technology, the kitschiness of the music), and it is funny, but what we feel most acutely is the poignancy of this particular moment for this particular family.

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.