According to the dominant theory among biologists, life originated on our planet when peculiar combinations of chemicals—known to form spontaneously under the proper circumstances—came together in just the right way to form cells; from these cells, the theory holds, all subsequent life evolved. Astronomers, writes Ethan Siegel, have meanwhile concluded that “there are there are nearly 10²² potentially habitable, Earth-like planets containing the right conditions and ingredients for life.” It would therefore stand to reason that not only did life evolve on some of these, but on some it evolved into an intelligent form capable of technological advancement. Where, then, are these aliens?

While many scientists are optimistic that it may be easy to create a simplified form of life, we’ve never successfully done so, nor have we witnessed it happening. We have yet to detect any life-form that didn’t originate on Earth. And as far back as we’re capable of tracing it, all life on Earth goes back to a single, universal common ancestor. Life might be common in the universe, but until we detect a second example where life arose from non-life, we cannot know. . . .

When we ask the big question—“Where is everybody?”—it’s worth keeping a great many possibilities in mind. Aliens might be plentiful, but perhaps we’re not listening properly. Aliens might be plentiful, but they might self-destruct too quickly to maintain a technologically advanced state. Aliens might be plentiful, but they may choose to remain isolated. Aliens might be plentiful, but they might purposely choose to exclude Earth and its inhabitants from their communications. Aliens might be plentiful, but the problems of interstellar transmission or travel might be too difficult to overcome.

But there’s another valid possibility that we must keep in mind as well: aliens may not be there at all. The probability of the vital leaps [necessary to produce life, let alone advanced civilizations] is enormously uncertain. If even one of these three steps is too cosmically improbable, it may well be that in all the universe, there’s only us.

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.