Sunday and Monday saw an unusual exchange of fire between Israel and its enemies in Syria: first because the IDF struck its targets during the daytime rather than at night, and second because of the intense response from Iran and its allies, which included launching a missile at the Mount Hermon ski resort. These attacks come in the context of Jerusalem’s new willingness to claim responsibility for its strikes on Iranian targets in Syria. Considering Israeli strategy in this ongoing low-grade conflict, Ron Tira stresses the importance of not simply eliminating particular targets but of deterring Iran in its quest to transform Syria into the new front line of its war on the Jewish state:

The establishment of a network of precision missiles by Iran and Hizballah on Israel’s borders could give [the two] the ability to deliver a paralyzing blow against [Israeli] civil and military systems, causing enormous damage and changing the strategic equation in the theater. To be sure, this threat is not as severe as [that of a hostile power acquiring nuclear weapons], but neither is it akin to the threat posed by a buildup of weapons intended for warfare between armies or of [imprecise] weapons aimed at the home front. This is a new category of threat, and because of its severity, the overarching response must be one of prevention rather than of delay, containment, preemptive strike, or active and passive defense. . . .

In order to achieve prevention, Israel’s goals must be twofold. First, it must force the relevant actors to change their policy. Iran and Hizballah must suspend or abandon their drive to establish a network of precision weapons on Israel’s border, and the Syrian regime and Russia must actively oppose any further such efforts by Iran and Hizballah. Second, Israel must continue to deter any renewed attempts by Iran and Hizballah for the long term. . . .

Accordingly, . . . Israel must demonstrate to its enemies the potential for escalation and regional instability caused by the positioning of high-quality Iranian weapons in Syria. . . . It must also continue attacks despite increased risks and resistance. . . . If properly handled, the growing friction with the Syrian regime . . . could actually help to implement the strategy described above. The direct military hostilities with Iran (such as the events of February 10 and May 10, 2018 and January 21, 2019) in Israel’s backyard, over 900 miles from Tehran, [takes place in an area] where Israel has a clear advantage. Perhaps, therefore, [Iranian and Syrian retaliation and escalation] is not a risk to be avoided but rather an advantage to be exploited.

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.