Benjamin Kerstein argues that, especially in Europe, the rising tide of violent anti-Semitism—which he terms the “global pogrom”—can be countered successfully by a vigorous and coordinated response:

The most important thing for Israelis, American Jews, and indeed everyone to understand about the global pogrom is that [it] is strikingly vulnerable. Practically everything it does, from hate speech to physical violence to murder, is patently illegal. Many of these crimes also leave pogromists and their supporters open to civil penalties, such as the favorite pogromist tactic of destroying property. And, of course, the pogrom violates the civil rights of citizens living in countries where civil rights are ostensibly sacrosanct. Indeed, to a striking extent, the pogrom is most vulnerable to the weapon the relevant authorities are most frightened to use—namely, the enforcement of their own laws.

Even more important, perhaps, is the fact that—contrary to its portrayal in much of the media—pogroms are not the work of “random” individuals. . . . The mob that attacked and almost breached the gates of the Synagogue de la Roquette in Paris last summer, for example, did not emerge from a vacuum. It broke off from a much larger anti-Israel demonstration nearby. Such demonstrations do not happen spontaneously. They require money, organization, and equipment that only specific groups can provide. . . .

Since even those demonstrations that [do] not descend into violence [are] marked by hate speech and incitement to violence, both of which are completely illegal in most European countries, all of the organizations involved in these incidents are exposed to civil and criminal penalties.

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.