Created recently under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Sanhedrin Trail is designed for hikers, especially students, looking for Jewish archaeological sites in the Galilee from the first half of the first millennium CE. In February a group of such students discovered a solid-gold coin, which experts have now identified as dating to the reign of the emperor Theodosius II—who abolished the rabbinical high council for which the trail is named. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

Emperor Theodosius II (401-450) began his reign over Byzantium, the eastern part of the Roman empire whose capital was in Constantinople, at the age of seven. His name is enshrined in the Codex Theodosianus, . . . a set of laws published in 438 that collected and redacted the thousands of imperial laws of the sprawling empire.

Unfortunately for the Jews of the era, who had enjoyed relative freedom, the codex officially demoted their status. Although the coin depicts the goddess Victory, Theodosius was a defender of the Christian faith, which he promoted as the official religion of the empire. As such, the rights and privileges of Jews were circumscribed. They were barred from military and civil service—aside from the thankless profession of tax collector—and no new synagogues could be constructed.

In an even more resonant blow, the emperor’s codex also diverted the taxes paid to the head of the Sanhedrin, which led to [its] eventual abolishment. Gamaliel VI (400–425) was the final holder of the office of nasi [or president of the council].

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.