In Texas last March, members of the Lipan Apache tribe gathered for a ritual dance, which, in accordance with the tribe’s traditions, involved eagle feathers. Unbeknownst to the participants, a polite observer was in fact an undercover agent for the Fish and Wildlife Service—investigating the possession of contraband—who attempted to confiscate the feathers and threatened the pastor presiding over the ceremony with fines or even prison. Mitchell Rocklin and David Mehl comment:

Contrary to popular opinion, most religious liberty cases do not involve same-sex marriage, abortion, or anti-discrimination laws. They involve religious believers like [the Lipan Apache] Pastor Robert Soto who simply want the government to leave them alone so they can observe their faith in peace.

Most of the feathers the agent confiscated came from eagles and other birds covered by the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. This law prohibits possessing feathers that come from a long list of birds. Because many Native Americans use eagle feathers in religious and cultural ceremonies, the Department of the Interior created an exception that allows Native Americans to possess them.

But there’s a catch. The exception is limited to members of federally registered tribes, and not all Native Americans belong to these tribes. The Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, for example, is recognized by historians, anthropologists, and the state of Texas, but not by the federal government. . . . Consequently, its members cannot legally own eagle feathers. The federal government does not doubt the religiosity of these tribes’ members. Nevertheless, it refuses to allow them to practice their faith.

As members of a minority faith, Jews have a particular interest in ensuring that religious-liberty protections cover every American.

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.