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What, according to the myth you perpetuate, were they slaughtered for?  Being Jewish per se?

Being Jewish was central to the problem that Muhammad saw. The Jews were more reluctant to convert to Islam. They mocked Muhammad. Muhammad had expected them to be natural allies. He thought of himself as "their" profit, and often told them so, and obviously had issues with their rejection. Being large groups, their existence in Medina posed a threat to his quest for power. Being three groups who shared a religion, there was a risk they would unite against him - hence slaughtering the third tribe once he had kicked out the other two. They tended to have closer (trade) ties to Mecca and did not share with Muhammad or the pagans allied with him an animosity towards Mecca. Given that Muhammad was funding his rise to power by robbing Meccan caravans, that was inevitably going to cause problems also. Muhammad let small, politically insignificant groups of Jews remain, but he instructed his successors to ethnically cleanse the whole area of non-Muslims, which happened shortly after his death.

After Medina, the pagans tended to cop it even worse than the Jews.

The continuing presence of at least a few Jews in Medina
is an argument against the view sometimes put forward by
European scholars that in the second year after the Hijrah
Muhammad adopted a policy of clearing all Jews out of
Medina just because they were Jews, and that he carried out
this policy with ever-increasing severity. It was not
Muhammad's way to have policies of this kind. He had a
balanced view of the fundamentals of the contemporary
situation and of his long-term aims, and in the light of this he
moulded his day-to-day plans in accordance with the changing
factors in current events. The occasions of his attacks
on the first two Jewish clans were no more than occasions ;
but there were also deep underlying reasons. The Jews in
general by their verbal criticisms of the Qur'anic revelation
were trying to undermine the foundation of the whole
Islamic community ; and . they were also giving political
support to Muhammad's enemies and to opponents such as the
Hypocrites. In so far as the Jews abandoned these forms of
hostile activity Muhammad allowed them to live in Medina
unmolested.