On April 30, the German government ended its longstanding policy of recognizing a fictive distinction between Hizballah’s “military” and “political” wings. Beforehand, Berlin had banned the former, but allowed the latter entity to operate within its borders. Christoph Bernstiel, a German parliamentarian, urges the rest of Europe to follow his country’s example, and explains why:

Though Hizballah has so far not carried out any attacks on German soil, [it] is spreading violence and terror across the whole world—including the Muslim world—and exploiting Germany as a safe haven. Our security authorities have been keeping a close eye on the organization for some time. Numerous measures have been implemented in recent years to diminish Hizballah’s influence in Germany.

In 2014, a fundraising association claiming to be collecting donations for orphans in Lebanon was banned and dissolved, since the money raised was being channeled to a Hizballah “martyrs’ fund.”

[Berlin’s new] approach to Hizballah could be described as a correction of the course previously taken, in which it had endeavored for many years to act as a mediator in negotiations between Lebanon and the state of Israel. Hizballah wields a very strong influence on politics and society in Lebanon. Germany believed that readiness to engage in dialogue could help build stability there. Yet it became clear that Hizballah repeatedly exploited this willingness to make concessions in order to carry out attacks or plan terrorist activities. Germany therefore reached the conclusion that the time for negotiations and warnings had gone on long enough.

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.