In their book Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile, Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi examine the evolution of ancient Jewish notions of the non-Jew, from the Bible, through the Second Temple Period, and in ancient rabbinic texts. Focusing on the term goy, which literally and originally meant “nation,” they argue that in the early parts of the Bible, Israel is simply one of many goyim. But in the later books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the difference between Jew and Gentile begins to grow starker, so that by the talmudic era a strict, binary distinction prevails that erases differentiation among non-Jews. While praising the book for “offering a veritable treasure of the best scholarship on the subject,” Christine Hayes also takes issue with its thesis:

[In my own work] I have adduced evidence for the co-occurrence of both discourses—that of the generalized non-Jew and that of [a group of diverse alternatives to Jewishness]—across biblical, non-biblical pre-rabbinic, and rabbinic sources. Regarding biblical texts: alongside those highlighted by Ophir and Rosen-Zvi, and found throughout the Bible, there is an equally well-distributed conception of a generalized [idea of the non-Jew] that is the binary opposite of Israel. [For instance], in Exodus 19:3-6 and many similar texts, God sets Israel apart from all other peoples . . . by means of His law: “if you will obey me faithfully and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples . . . a holy [literally, separate] nation.”

It is clear then, from this and similar texts, that Ezra does not innovate by establishing a binary distinction between Israel and other peoples; he innovates by employing a new principle of separation for the binary distinction, one that is essential and immutable rather than contingent. . . .

Thus, no straight line can be drawn from Ezra to [the post-biblical text] Jubilees to the rabbis. Quite the contrary. A straight line can be drawn from the generalized binary of Exodus to the binary of various Second Temple writings including those of Philo and Josephus and on to the rabbis. All of these sources employ a contingent principle of separation that allows for movement of individual persons from one side of the stable boundary to the other. A second straight line can be drawn from the generalized binary of Ezra to that of [such late Second Temple-era works as] Tobit, the Testament of Levi, Jubilees, [certain Dead Sea texts], and other sectarian writings, and on to the apostle Paul who, pace Ophir and Rosen-Zvi, differs radically from the rabbis. . . .

In an important statement near the beginning of the book, the authors speak of their own positions as Israelis growing up with the polarized conception of the goy ­and the various social ills and inequities to which this conception [allegedly] contributes. . . . [A]t times the authors’ argument appears to be driven less by the evidence than by the desire to assign the goy to a late stage in Jewish textual tradition, presumably to lessen its power.

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.