Thus far, Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates have generally refrained from attacking Israel, although they have gotten dangerously close to its borders. But, argue Shlomo Brom and Yoram Schweitzer, any number of regional developments could change the organization’s calculus:

In the scenario of a de-facto division of Syria [among the warring parties], the confrontation between enemy groups could gradually die down, whereupon Islamic State and [other] Salafist jihadist entities might turn more of their attention to Israel. Also, competition among the various actors in Syria is liable to develop over their desire to prove their ideological commitment to the struggle against Israel. The spread of IS to southern Syria might not only generate [more opportunities for attacking] Israel, but also lead to friction with the Druze in the Jabel Druze region. This friction might prompt internal pressure in Israel to intervene.

Furthermore, pressure from Islamic State on Jordan could result in Israel positioning itself alongside Jordan in a fight. In Sinai too, the failure of Egyptian army actions to defeat the Salafist groups there may well lead to the reality of a jihadist entity being in control of that territory. [If] Egypt ceases its efforts against it, Islamic State is liable to turn its attention to Israel.

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.