One of the most persistent problems faced by the Jewish state has revolved around conversion to Judaism, which is governed by the Orthodox chief rabbinate. While many criticize this institution for making the bar to conversion too high, others have argued that conversions sanctioned by the chief rabbinate are frequently shams, where the prospective converts pretend to pledge themselves to a life of unfailing commitment to the laws of the Torah, and the rabbinic court pretends to believe them. In an in-depth discussion of these issues, Mosheh Lichtenstein and David Stav—both prominent Orthodox Zionist rabbis—find themselves exploring the very meaning of Jewishness in the modern state of Israel. (Moderated by Shlomo Brody. Video, 81 minutes.)

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.