> I'm not sure most, or even many, people see Israel as the root of all evil. Where does that perception come from?

I think there is a huge proportion of Muslims world wide who believe this is the case and also a pretty sizable amount of left wing (especially 'Woke') people in the West. Unfortunately some of these people don't even make a full distinction between Israelis and Jews, so it became bad news to Jews everywhere. I can go on and give a bunch of news stories and anecdotes (your own comment - the words you choose to use btw kind of reinforces my theory) but I don't think anything I write here will change your mind.