At the ancient Galilean village of Tel Rechesh, the archaeologist Motti Aviam and his colleagues have discovered a synagogue they believe was built between 20 and 40 CE. While Jewish houses of prayer from this period have been excavated in ancient cities, this is the first to be found in an agricultural community. Yitzḥak Tessler writes:

Aviam explained that “we are talking about a magnificent agricultural area about [one acre] in size where buildings are decorated with frescoes and stucco articles. Jewish families lived on the estate but, due to the fact that the nearest synagogue was four kilometers away (a distance deemed too far . . . according to Jewish law), the owner of the estate built the synagogue for himself and for the dozens of workers in his employment.” . . .

[One significant element is the] layout of the benches along the structure’s walls. This is [a typical] feature of a Sephardi synagogue’s design, in which worshippers sit along the wall facing the center of the room. It was customary for the prayer reader to stand in the center of the room and read portions and lessons of the Torah during the Sabbath and on the Jewish holidays.

Aviam added, “This is a simple synagogue but it is not simple to build a synagogue. The benches that we discovered are made of beautiful white ashlar stone and the large foundational pillars required considerable investment and were expensive.”

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.