The 10th-century Egyptian-born scholar Saadiah ben Joseph was the head (or gaon) of one of Baghdad’s two great rabbinic academies, and thus one of the foremost Jewish religious authorities of his day. Among his many books was one that might be considered the first Jewish theological treatise, which paved the way for the work of Moses Maimonides. Richard Baroff writes:

Saadiah was a scrupulous scholar of the Hebrew language and of language in general. He wrote grammar books and dictionaries. Living in the midst of the Abbasid caliphate, he understood the need for Jews living under the crescent of Islam to read Arabic. Thus he translated most of the Hebrew Bible into Arabic. . . .

His magnum opus was the magisterial Book of Beliefs and Opinions. Like most of his writings, this great work of speculative thought, drawing on both Greek and Islamic philosophy, was originally composed in Arabic. . . .

As a philosopher, his quest was unity. But as a careful student of language, his mind was keenly attuned to different shades of meaning. Therefore, Saadiah has prevailed over a millennium as a great biblical commentator who always wishes to draw general conclusions from the text but who never is seduced by simple explanations.

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.