On a hike not far from the Gaza border, the six-year-old Imri Elya discovered a rare clay seal showing a victorious warrior and his captive. Amanda Borschel-Dan describes the item:

The visceral scene—impressed upon a clay seal by an artisan whose fingerprints are still visible on [its] back—was found by Elya while walking on Tel Jemmah near the Gaza border. . . . Elya received a certificate of good citizenship for turning the artifact over to the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The 1.1-inch square clay impression was likely a souvenir of victory, similar to an honor badge or medal, the IAA archaeologist Saar Ganor [said]. Since the impression was created from a mold, he said it’s possible there were many created and distributed. They may have been used as decorations, perhaps pressed inside other items—such as belts or furniture—that showcased the owners’ total victories.

Ganor believes the scene is of two Canaanites. The naked, rail-thin prisoner’s hands are so violently tied behind him that his back is ramrod straight. He is held captive by a clothed, somewhat plumper warden, with trimmed curly hair and a beard. . . . Through comparing and contrasting their find with others from the ancient world, the IAA researchers date the artifact to the late Bronze Age (between the 12th and 15th centuries BCE).

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.