On April 2, Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, threatened to “cut off the air to six million Zionists and take what we want from [them]”—presumably by overwhelming Israel with rocket fire—if his subjects were to face a shortage of medical supplies for treating coronavirus patients. But since then, something unprecedented has happened: complete quiet along Gaza’s border with Israel, with no attacks either by Hamas or by other groups. Eyal Zisser comments:

Israel is very worried about the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak among Gazans, since Israel sees itself and is seen by the world as responsible for what happens there—a harsh reminder to anyone who thought or wanted to believe that [it] actually “disengaged” back in 2005. But the specter of an outbreak is of even more concern to Hamas, whose leaders are very worried about how the pandemic could affect their status.

The economic crisis that emerged as a result of the pandemic is only making things in Gaza worse, a sort of straw that is breaking the Gaza camel’s back. The protests over rising unemployment, the cost of living, food shortages, and more are all directed against the ruling entity—Hamas.

As a result, tones have been moderated, and a white flag is being tentatively waved. [The head of Hamas’s] politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, [is now] talking about the coronavirus as a mutual strategic threat facing everyone, and a historic watershed moment that will allow for a deal with Israel. The most important issue for Israel is, of course, the return of the bodies of fallen Israeli soldiers and the release of the Israeli captives being held by Hamas.

[O]nce the issue of Israel’s fallen and captives is resolved, resolutions to many other issues can be reached. In the meantime, the Gaza border protests have stopped, as well as any intermittent rocket fire on southern 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.