The sirens blared at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.  Traffic stopped in the streets, drivers got out to stand in silence for 2 minutes, remembering their people who were herded into gassing rooms and pushed into burning ovens.

Annihilation is always on the minds of Israeli's; verbalized  threats come to them from all around....from surrounding nations as well as Europe and the western world.  Not to mention the church, mainline and others, who simply claim to be "pro-palestinian" which translated means pro-annihilation of Israel since that is the expressly stated purpose of significant palistinian leaders.  This may well be out of ignorance, but it is still a position that sounds to Israel like "anti-Jewish/anti-Semitic".

Also, there are groups of churches that preach "replacement theology", the concept that the church has replaced Israel in God's purposes for the nations.

But long before any of this more current history, Pharaoh, Haman, Hitler and now Hizbullah, expressly purposed to annihilate the Jewish people.

No wonder "annihilation" is a concept so close to the forefront of Jewish consciousness.

Psalm 83:1-4           Jeremiah 31:35-36