The recent visit of a quasi-official Saudi delegation to Israel ignited a fierce debate in the kingdom’s press, in which a number of columnists argued for a change in attitude toward Jews and the Jewish state. The translators at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explain:

Over the past month, the Saudi press has featured a number of highly unusual articles harshly critical of the anti-Semitic discourse in Arab and Muslim society. . . . The articles argue that [anti-Jewish] Quranic passages only apply to specific groups during specific time periods, and should not be applied to Jews in general. They add that blind hatred of Jews everywhere has prevented Arabs and Muslims from learning the lessons of the Jewish experience, and Jewish advancement. . . .

The [Saudi delegation’s] visit, which was seen as a Saudi step towards normalizing relations with the Jewish state, sparked harsh criticism inside and outside the kingdom. . . . Likely as a response to this criticism, the Saudi Foreign Ministry distanced itself from [the delegation]. . . . However, . . . despite the Saudi regime’s denial that the visit heralded normalization, the publication of Saudi articles attacking anti-Semitic discourse specifically at this time is no coincidence, and is likely meant to lay the groundwork for public acceptance in the country of normalized relations with Israel.

One of these journalists, Siham al-Qahtani, wrote guardedly:

In [Arab collective] memory, Jewish history is associated with a plot. Behind every disaster in Arab history—from [intra-Muslim conflict in the 7th century] to the fall of the Islamic caliphates, to the occupation of Palestine—there are [supposedly] hidden Jewish hands! In this way, Arab fundamentalism regarding Arab-Jewish relations taught us to link [Jews to conspiracies].

In Arab memory this formula has become a defensive trick, used [by the Arabs] to absolve themselves of blame, paint themselves as victims, and avoid accountability and punishment. I do not reject [out of hand] the notion of “a Jewish plot against the Arabs,” because I believe that such a plot does exist, but such plots could not have been realized without the ignorance of Arabs, their improper attitude, and the division in their ranks. The chief enemy of Arabs is Arabs [themselves].

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.