Exodus

 Exodus is a 1960 epic historical drama film about the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo from the 1958 novel of the same name by Leon Uris. 

The film stars Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Jill Haworth, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek and George Maharis.  Ernest Gold won the Academy Award for Best Music Score.

The film begins with thousands of European Jews, struggling to build a new life in Palestine, are forced by the British Army into an internment camp on the island of Cyprus.  The Arabs don't want them arriving in Palestine, a country they want all for themselves after they attempt to expel the British who had governed the country since the end of World War I.  

Through chicanery, Ari (Newman) smuggles over six hundred internees out of the camp onto a cargo ship (renamed the Exodus) bound for Palestine.  The British blockade the ship in the harbor.

Ari calls for a hunger strike to force the British to relent.  It eventually succeeds.  The Exodus sails to Palestine.

When the British pull out of Palestine in May 1948, the Jewish residents declare their independence as the State of Israel in the area designated for them by the United Nations.  However, fighting erupts between the Israelis and the Arab residents of Palestine plus invading neighboring Arab states who do not want the Jewish state to exist.

In 1948, the Jews were considered victims both of the Nazi driven Holocaust in Europe and the attacks by Arabs who outnumbered them.  After 75 years of successful statehood along with economic prosperity, Israel's perception by much of the world has been transferred from victimhood to oppressor of their Arab neighbors.

Thomas Sowell (author and social critic) was asked how Jews can stop being hated.   His response was, "Fail."