Excavating in the City of David—one of the most ancient parts of Jerusalem—a group of archaeologists discovered the capital of a stone column decorated with symbols associated with royal buildings from the First Temple period. Tzvi Joffre describes what happened next:

While lifting the capital out of the ground, [the excavators] were stunned to find not only that the stone was decorated on both sides, but that there was yet another identical capital directly underneath it. A third identical stone was found nearby. The stones seem to have been hidden intentionally due to their seemingly careful placement. It may have been the only thing that saved them from being destroyed. . . . Why the stones were so carefully hidden may never be known, he added.

The capitals are linked to the Davidic dynasty because such designs from the period . . . have only been found within the areas [the dynasty] ruled. . . . Besides the capitals, additional artifacts found at the site indicate a royal or noble building as well, including a toilet—an [feature] only found in the homes of the wealthy in that period.

Using evidence from artifacts found at the site and the level at which they were found, archaeologists dated the capitals to the 7th century BCE, between the rule of King Hezekiah and the Babylonian conquest and destruction of Jerusalem.

“This . . . is really a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” the City of David Foundation vice-president Doron Spielman said.

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.