I’m currently reading a book about the targeted killings by the Mossad, “Rise and Kill First” by Ronen Bergman.

It starts before Israel even was considered as a country in 1906, when the land was governed by Turkey as part of the Ottoman Empire.

Thousands of Jews lived there, nominally under the protection of the Empire. In reality the police turned a blind eye to the Jews being attacked by their Muslim neighbors.

Fast forward to 1948 when the land was partitioned by the UN into Israel and a larger Palestinian part.

There were many Muslims living in the land designated for Israel. They were not forced to leave. They left when the surrounding Arab nations attacked.

The Arab leader, Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha declared, “This will be a war of great destruction and slaughter that will be remembered like the massacres carried out by the Mongols and the Crusaders.”

This little tiny country had and would make no difference to the surrounding Arabs. Why the hatred?