Last week, a number of Latin American ambassadors attended a day-long seminar in Tehran on undermining America’s global influence. But now one of the Islamic Republic’s ruling factions seems to want to cancel next month’s fifth annual “End of America” conference. The rationale, writes Amir Taheri, is not that the end of America is no longer desired, but that avoiding provocation may help achieve it:

More than 30 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini’s intransigence led to the destruction of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, depriving Iran of a friend in Washington. It would be foolish to repeat the same mistake by humiliating Barack Obama and through him the Democratic party, thus helping the return to power of the Republicans who are committed to making life difficult for the Khomeinist regime. . . .

Another four or perhaps even eight years of President Obama’s policies would nicely coincide with the duration of the Vienna nuclear deal, which envisages “a final closing of the dossier” by 2023 at the latest. Until then, Iran would be kept a year away from building a nuclear arsenal if it so decides. After that, Iran could do so within 60 days, if it so wished.

More importantly, another eight years of Obama’s strategy would make it immensely difficult, if not impossible in practical terms, for any future U.S. administration to revive the Pax Americana as a viable option. This strategy is aimed at shrinking the American military footprint across the world. . . .

Many might see the “End of America” world as a far more dangerous place. The mullahs, however, would regard it as the fulfillment of Khomeini’s dream.

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.