The Bible contains numerous references to Asherah or to “asherahs,” usually in the context of calls for their destruction or rebukes to those who worship them. It is not always clear whether the term refers to a female deity or ritual objects associated with that deity, which might have been statues, or poles thought to represent trees, or actual sacred trees. There are also competing theories about which Levantine deities were Asherah’s equivalent. And then there seem to have been those who worshipped both Asherah and the biblical God. Ellen White writes:

Inscriptions . . . contain the phrase “Yahweh and his Asherah.” Some take this to mean it was believed that she was seen as the wife of Yahweh and represents the goddess herself. Yet the presence of [the possessive “his”] could suggest that it is not a personal name. This has led others to believe it is a reference to the cult symbol. A more obscure opinion claims it means a cella or chapel; this meaning is found in other Semitic languages, but not Hebrew. Because of the similarities between [the pagan god] El and Yahweh, it is understandable that Asherah could have been linked to Yahweh. While some readers might find disturbing the idea that Yahweh had a wife, it was common in the ancient world to believe that gods married and even bore children. This popular connection between Yahweh and Asherah, and the eventual purging of Asherah from the Israelite cult, is likely a reflection of the emergence of monotheism from the Israelites’ previous polytheistic worldview.

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.