When not opposing the construction of houses in Israel, the advocacy group J Street, working alongside far-left and pro-Iranian organizations, has been lobbying the U.S. Congress to suspend sanctions against Iran. In doing so, it gives the lie to its claim that it is really a pro-Israel organization dedicated to a diplomatic solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It seems more likely that it has made itself into an extension of the Obama administration. Eric Greenstein writes:

This wouldn’t be the first time J Street has worked together with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) to prevent either a military strike or the strengthening of sanctions against Iran. Already in 2009, J Street head Jeremy Ben-Ami and Dr. Trita Parsi of NIAC worked against sanctions, and the two organizations have developed warm ties. A Jerusalem Post investigation showed that J Street received donations from Muslim and Arab bodies, including those with connections to NIAC.

The character of the organizations and the timing of their “grassroots” pressure on Congress raise serious questions about J Street’s role as an arm of the White House. The timing of the petition is no coincidence. On November 24, the ultimatum set for the Iranians in the framework of the nuclear talks will expire. Along with other powers, the United States is working intensively to reach an agreement with Iran that would reduce the number of [but not eliminate] its active centrifuges.

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.