User blog comment:Lorchyism23/Joining the Thalmor/@comment-1840877-20120926182804/@comment-1840877-20120926183105

In fact, here's a paragraph from that page that shows you just how loathed the Thalmor are in Skyrim:

"Take note: killing any NPC in any hold who didn't provoke the attack will slap you with a rather large one thousand septim bounty for murder. Any NPC, that is, save for Thalmor. You'll still get the forty septim bounty for assault, but killing a Thalmor NPC incurs zero bounty. You can even get around this by first provoking the Thalmor into attacking you, which prompts any nearby city guards into attacking them. That's right, brutally murdering half a dozen elves in front of the city guard gets you little more than a slap on the wrist (and even that can be tossed out if you're a thane). That goes to show just how much the Thalmor are hated in Skyrim."