(RNS) There’s an illness that stubbornly resists both treatment and cure. I call it “Israelphobia,” and it is, unfortunately, a chronic condition.

The malady’s major symptom is a negative obsession about Israel that involves a hypocritical double standard when judging Israeli actions in comparison with all other nations’ behavior. Other signs of the disease include an inability to accept the reality of Jews, and an unwillingness to recognize the Jewish state as a permanent — and legitimate — member of the international community.

The ailment is frequently accompanied by an obsequious uncritical celebration of all things Islamic and/or Palestinian; a belief that the existence of Israel threatens the West’s access to the Middle East’s oil reserves; and a depressing failure of nerve in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons that can be used against Israel and other enemies.

Good physicians provide realistic diagnoses and advice that enables patients to overcome their illnesses. With that in mind, I offer my own diagnosis and advice to help people suffering from Israelphobia.

The most important step is to take a deep breath and recognize that Israel, the land of the Bible, and its capital city of Jerusalem will always be a big complex story whether in peace, war or otherwise. Despite what some Israelphobic folks desire, Israel will not obediently disappear from the world stage, nor will Israelis run and cower because of so-called “world opinion.”

Despite its small geographical size, Israel will always be inextricably linked to millions of people throughout the world. Nor will it ever be just another country bathed in benign normality. It’s never been, and never will be.

Helen Thomas, who was forcibly retired as a White House columnist, showed a severe case of Israelphobia when she called for Jews “to get the hell out” of Palestine and return, of all places, to Poland and Germany. Her obscene and absurd implication was that Jews do not belong in their own historic homeland.

The connection between Jews and with the land of Israel began with Abraham and Sarah and intensified when King David made Jerusalem his capital around 1000 B.C. Jewish passion for the land has been the focus of generations of prayers, poems, pilgrimages, songs, biblical verses, books, and sermons. Christians also revere the land where they believe Jesus (a Jew from Nazareth) was born, lived, executed by the Romans, and resurrected.

While Jerusalem is not specifically mentioned in the Quran, it nonetheless ranks as the third-holiest city for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina. The walled “Old City” of Jerusalem occupies about a third of a square mile, but it is saturated with spiritual meaning for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Within that tiny area are the Temple Mount, the Western Wall (a remnant of the Holy Temple) and the Jewish Quarter: sacred space for Jews. The Old City also contains the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the site of Jesus’ tomb, and the route Jesus took on the walk to his death: sacred space for Christians.

Muslims revere the city because of the Islamic belief that the Prophet Muhammad miraculously traveled from his home in the Arabian Peninsula to Jerusalem and ascended to heaven. In 691, Arab conquerors consciously built the Dome of the Rock mosque directly atop the site of the two Jewish Temples.

Israel will always be a crowded and controversial place — religiously, politically, culturally and emotionally — and will constantly draw global attention. It never was, and never will be, a tranquil part of the world.

People seeking a cure for Israelphobia need to gain accurate information, which will in turn compel them to abandon stereotypes, caricatures, prejudice and bigotry.

Would-be peacemakers suffering from Israelphobia can only be effective if they follow the words of the medical Hippocratic Oath: first “do no harm.”

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the forthcoming “Christians & Jews, Faith to Faith: Tragic History, Promising Present, Fragile Future.”)