While Islamic State (IS) still controls pockets of territory in northeastern Syria, its “caliphate,” which at its height also included much of northern Iraq, has been destroyed. But IS still has numerous branches everywhere from West Africa to the Philippines and has not lost its will to fight on. Lawrence Franklin explains:

[M]embers of IS were defeated geographically, but may not feel eviscerated ideologically. Rather, the organization is in a state of flux, in which IS fighters must face the new realities of a post-caliphate era in their jihad. Some IS veterans remaining in or near villages in northeastern Syria will continue to engage in skirmishes against Syrian-government, Kurdish, and foreign forces rather than surrender. A portion, however, are surrendering to the U.S.-backed, mostly Kurdish, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF); still others may try to blend in with the local population.

Many foreign IS fighters, particularly from European countries, may have migrated back to their homelands or have been captured or killed. Others have apparently followed the directive of IS’s Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to migrate to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Baghdadi himself having reportedly fled to the latter.

Islamic State’s leaders, after the roll-up of the caliphate, may have decided that they had to prove to their fighters that their organization is still very much alive—possibly the reason for its recent suicide-bombing operation in Manbij, Syria, in which four American nationals were killed. The operation also may have been, in part, a response to President Donald Trump’s statement, and those of other officials, asserting that IS had been crushed in the region. . . .

In addition, Islamic State continues its traditional [activities] on social-media platforms, with messages as well as videos for Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. However, the terrorist group’s propaganda themes have altered significantly. Gone are the sensational videos of battlefield victories and executions of captured “apostate” Muslim warriors. . . .

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.