For seven consecutive seasons, archaeologists have been excavating a 5th-century synagogue in the Galilean village of Ḥuqoq, gradually uncovering mosaics that portray a series of biblical scenes. A depiction of the most famous passage from the book of Jonah is the latest discovery, as Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

In the . . . mosaic, Jonah’s legs are shown dangling from the mouth of a large fish, which is being swallowed by a larger fish, which is being consumed by a third, even larger fish. . . . [T]his is the first known depiction of the story of Jonah in an ancient synagogue in Israel. . . .

According to Jodi Magness, [one of the archaeologists coordinating the excavation], “the Huqoq mosaics are unusually rich and diverse. In addition, they display variations on biblical stories which must represent oral traditions that circulated among the local Jewish population. . . . These scenes are very rare in ancient synagogues.” . . .

Among the other rich mosaic finds this season was a detailed scene of men at work constructing a stone tower, which the [archaeological] team hypothesizes is a depiction of the building of the Tower of Babel. Also, a mosaic medallion shows the Greco-Roman sun god Helios in a four-horse chariot. He is surrounded by personifications of the months, the signs of the zodiac, and personifications of the four seasons.

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.