Does Reframing Israel, a new curriculum being peddled to American Hebrew schools, present history in such a way as to delegitimize the Jewish state? Its author, Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman, and many members of its advisory committee are members of the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voices for Peace and have participated in calls for boycotting and divesting from Israel. Max Samarov and Amanda Botfeld write:

At first glance, the curriculum appears well-balanced, filled with . . . activities like learning Hebrew songs and creative exercises aimed at building understanding of both Israeli and Palestinian narratives. . . . [However], digging a little deeper into the material, [it becomes apparent that] the message [is] overwhelmingly anti-Israel. . . .

The “historical overview” begins by downplaying the relationship between the Jewish people and Israel, focusing on religious instead of historical and archaeological aspects. Sections about the Jewish connection to the land are prefaced with phrases like “in Jewish tradition” or “according to the Hebrew Bible,” rather than being anchored in the certainty of well-documented historical facts. . . .

Jewish communities [in the Diaspora] are also described as being “well-integrated” and having “flourished” in most times and places. Anti-Semitism is mentioned only in relation to Europe, and not the Middle East. . . .

At the end of this “historical overview,” which supposedly encourages “critical thinking” about the conflict, the BDS movement is introduced entirely uncritically to Jewish children. In the “Key Terms” section, BDS is described favorably as having “attracted significant global support,” with opposition coming only from “Jewish organizations” for reasons unknown. . . . BDS’s central demand—the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants—is presented without criticism. . . . BDS’s core slander against Israel—that Israel is an apartheid state—is introduced without any meaningful counterarguments.

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.