Given Bernie Sanders’s performance at the Iowa caucuses, and his high poll numbers in New Hampshire, it seems possible that he could be the first Jew to be nominated for the presidency by a major political party. Yet, notes Shmuel Rosner, surveys suggest that Jewish Democrats are significantly less likely than Democrats in general to want Sanders to win. He conjectures as to why that might be:

[Sanders] is a radical, and most Jews instinctively know that an atmosphere in which radicalism thrives is an atmosphere in which Jews are in danger. It’s true that in many past cases, Jews were visible, even dominant, in radical circles. But American Jews, many of whom live comfortably and count themselves among American elites, have little reason to shake things up. In fact, I believe that many Jews in the U.S. instinctively objected to Donald Trump for the same reason. He—like Sanders—is an engine of unrest.

[Sanders also] keeps the company of allies of whom Jews are justifiably suspicious. Recently, one of [these] allies, Representative Ilhan “It’s All About the Benjamins” Omar, praised the candidate as someone who is “threatening to the status quo.” A fair number of American Jews dislike Omar for her comments and attitudes. A fair number of American Jews like the status quo.

Then, there is the fact that Sanders is critical of Israel. Many Jews in America are also critical of Israel. But Sanders goes way beyond criticism. He threatens to shake the very foundation of the American-Israel alliance, [once commenting that], “$3.8 billion is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government”—in essence, questioning the U.S. commitment to provide Israel with military aid. And he does that by using language that was rarely used by previous prospective presidential candidates.

True, some Jews who have large megaphones deplore some of Israel’s policies and no longer care (and would even cheer) if Israel is thrown under the bus. But I don’t think this is the view of the majority.

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.