Once primarily associated with British thinkers and more recently espoused with enthusiasm by American evangelicals, the idea that Christians should support the return of the Jews to their biblical homeland on theological grounds accounts for a significant portion of the immense popular support for Israel in the U.S. Now, writes Emma Green, American evangelicals are on their way to becoming a minority in an emerging worldwide movement whose adherents were abundantly conspicuous in Jerusalem during the holiday of Sukkot:

European pilgrims wore Star of David jewelry as they swayed among the palm trees of Ein Gedi, an oasis in the Judean desert. Spanish delegates sported matching “España loves Israel” T-shirts. . . . The crowd sang songs from the Psalms, following transliterated Hebrew on giant television screens. As night fell, their chorus of “holy, holy, worthy, worthy” seemed to fill the desert. This was the opening ceremony for the 2017 Feast of the Tabernacles, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s (ICEJ) annual celebration held during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. More than 6,000 Christians from all over the world had come to show their love for Israel. . . .

This year’s Feast drew attendees from nearly 100 countries. . . . ICEJ has expanded in tandem with the rise of global Pentecostal movements. Parsons said the Embassy’s presence has been growing in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where Pentecostal revivals among the middle class are reshaping the religious landscape. . . .

Many of the delegates came from countries that explicitly oppose Israeli policies. On the day of the Jerusalem March, when thousands of Feast participants parade through the city, a group from [notoriously anti-Israel] South Africa wore T-shirts declaring, “Am Yisrael Chai,” or “the People of Israel lives.” . . .

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.