Notice that in each of these cases, Obama didn't merely "seem interested" in intervening. He did intervene, with lethal force, at times on a massive scale for years. Those examples are more than sufficient to illustrate the irrefutable wrongheadedness of the claim that "Israel is the one country in the world in whose affairs President Obama has seemed at all interested in intervening." As for the notion that Israel is "the one country whose politics and actions Obama has had no trouble judging harshly," let's see if we can find any clear counterexamples.

As it turns out, Obama has harshly judged the Assad regime in Syria; Russia's actions in Crimea; the ongoing pursuit of nuclear weapons in Iran (where Obama partnered with Israel to intervene with an apparently successful cyber attack); North Korea on various occasions; politically motivated violence in Venezuela; human-rights abuses in Cuba; China for cyberattacks, currency policy, and human-rights abuses; Rwanda for its policy toward the Democratic Republic of the Congo; among many others. Love or hate Obama's words on Israel, the notion that it is "the one country" the actions of which he harshly judges is fantasy.

Continetti concludes his column by condemning White House efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. "This is not the time for President Obama and John Kerry to play to type, to promote bad agreements for self-satisfaction, for political gain," he writes. "If they won’t stand behind Israel, they should at least get out of the way. And let the IDF finish the job." When Continetti expresses his desire for the Obama administration to "get out of the way," he really means that Obama should continue his perennial support for giving Israel $3.1 billion in annual aid, as well as selling it many of the weapons it is using in Gaza, sometimes in secret—but after lending all of that significant support, which won't count as "standing behind Israel," then the Obama administration should mind its own business.

Continetti and his publishers—some of the most powerful figures in the conservative movement—are perfectly within their rights to back Israel in its war in Gaza, to favor continuing the massive amounts of aid that the United States gives to that country, and to criticize Obama-administration rhetoric on the conflict there. (I certainly don't know if Obama and Kerry have it right or wrong.)

But when they advance their narrative of Israeli persecution by eliding the significant financial and military support the Obama administration has favored giving Israel; when they claim Obama is interested in intervening only in Israeli affairs; and when they say that Israel is the only country Obama criticizes, they spread obvious falsehoods, and illustrate why their foreign-policy judgment cannot be trusted. It is informed by delusions.