In light of an ongoing wave of bomb-threats against Jewish institutions, and now the desecrations of Jewish cemeteries, some have rushed to connect the supposed upsurge in anti-Semitism to Donald Trump’s presidency. Ian Tuttle notes that there is yet no firm statistical evidence that such events are really becoming more frequent, let alone any information to shed light on their cause, and points out that many critics of the president seem eager to exploit the situation to score political points:

The sharp spike in anti-Semitic incidents during the [2014] Gaza war is noteworthy. . . . The episode [supports the contention] that short-term news events can occasion violence. But the majority of perpetrators of anti-Semitism during the Gaza war were not the Trump-supporting white supremacists upon whom the recent violence is being blamed. . . .

The parallel ascent of Donald Trump and vile elements of right-wing politics has, indeed, been alarming. Long before the mainstream media became interested, conservative opponents of Trump found themselves targets of a repulsive fringe. . . .

However, the hard evidence is not yet in, and responsible commentators would do well to be patient. Regrettably, many on the left have leapt on the news for partisan purposes. . . . Keith Ellison, the Minnesota congressman, . . . recently tweeted: “Why has it taken [Donald Trump] so long even to say the word ‘anti-Semitism?’ Perhaps it has something to do with placating his base?” . . . [T]he denunciations of Keith Ellison—who was a longtime member of Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, from which he did not distance himself until he ran for Congress in 2006—ring hollow, as do those from progressives who cheer Linda Sarsour—an organizer of January’s Women’s March who has championed anti-Israel terrorism [and recently helped raise funds to help repair the vandalized Jewish cemetery in St. Louis]—or the grotesqueries of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement.

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.