According to the Hebrew Bible, Nehemiah—a Jew serving in the Persian court—was made governor of Judea at the behest of the emperor Artaxerxes in the 5th century BCE. In this role he restored Jerusalem’s walls and revived adherence to the Torah. Lucas Schulte compares depictions of the Persian regime in the book of Nehemiah with those in contemporary Babylonian and Egyptian texts, and notes some common threads of the empire’s public-relations strategy. (Free registration required.)

The Cyrus Cylinder [discovered in Mesopotamia] describes a Babylonian god, Marduk, choosing [the Persian emperor] Cyrus to rule kindly over the Babylonians as “king of Babylon.” This inscription demonstrates an important Persian propaganda innovation: using the language (in this case, Babylonian cuneiform), inscription style (cylinders deposited in the foundations of buildings), local gods (Marduk and Nabu), and the local royal title (“king of Babylon”) of subject peoples. No previous kings in the ancient Near East had used this combination of methods. . . .

This pattern continues with Cyrus’s successors. The Nabonidus Chronicles indicate that Cyrus’ son and heir, Cambyses, participated in the Babylonian Akitu festival in the traditional role of the king of Babylon. When Cambyses brought Egypt under Persian control, the Egyptian statue of Udjahorresnet indicates that this Persian policy spread to Egypt. The inscription [on the statue] depicts both Cambyses and his successor Darius as taking the traditional titles, roles, and throne names of Egyptian pharaohs.. . .

A comparison of Persian royal propaganda as found in Babylonian and Egyptian sources with depictions of Artaxerxes in the book of Nehemiah reveals fascinating correspondences. Both Nehemiah 2 and 13:4-14 closely resemble [these texts]. . . . Since the prayer and request for remembrance in Nehemiah 1:5-11 bears some resemblance to Persian period sources, Nehemiah may have reworked an existing prayer for his own purposes. Some of Nehemiah’s self-depictions in Nehemiah 5:14 resemble similar self-depictions of the Udjahorresnet statue inscription.

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.