When his proclaimed attempt to purify Christianity failed to precipitate a mass conversion of Jews, Martin Luther declared that “their synagogues . . . should be set on fire, . . . their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed,” and their sacred books confiscated. He also advocated the execution of rabbis. Josel of Rosheim, a capable and resourceful leader, sought to rebut Luther’s slanders and successfully interceded with the Holy Roman emperor to obtain an official confirmation of Jewish rights and privileges. Eli Kavon comments:

Josel had the title of “chief of the Jews in the German Lands.” Time after time, he had to place his life at risk to defend his fellow Jews. In his [Hebrew-language] memoirs he relates how he had to confront peasants in Alsace [during their 1525 revolt] and convince them not to attack the Jews. . . .

Josel’s genius was rooted in his ability to persuade both Protestants and Catholics, based on the underpinnings of their theology and politics, not to harm Jews and to allow Jews to live in peace and with privileges. Toward the end of his life, he found himself siding with Catholic rulers to provide Jews with protection against Luther and the Protestant Reformation. While he realized that the emperors posed a danger to the Jews as well, he feared Luther most of all.

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.