72. A) Scarcely any scholar has contradicted the assertion that there was no forced exile of a Jewish people in the first century ad. and most critics are perfectly well aware that the Bible is not a book of history. The secularisation of the Old Testament was conducted by the Zionist regime in parallel with the nationalization of the "exile". The myth that recounted the expulsion of the "Jewish people" by the Romans became the supreme justification for claiming historical rights over a Palestine that Zionist rhetoric had transformed into the "Land of Israel". We have here a particular astonishing example of the molding of a collective memory. But what happened to the population of Judea if it did not undergo exile by the Romans ? In the early days of colonization even prominent Zionist leaders, including Ben Gurion all believed that the native Palestinians ("fellahs") they encountered were descendants from the ancient Jewish people, and that the two populations had to be reunited. They knew perfectly well that there was never an exile in the first century ad., and they logically concluded that the great mass of the Jews had converted to Islam with the arrival of Arab forces in the early seventh century. It is most likely that to-days Palestinians derive from a variety of origins, just like all contemporary peoples. Each conqueror left his mark in the region: Egyptians, Persians and Byzantines fertilized the local women and many descendants must still be there. Hence an inhabitant of Hebron is probably much closer in origin to the ancient Jews than the majority of those across the world, who identify themselves as such.After exhausting all the historical arguments, several critics have seized on genetics. In the 1950's research was carried out in Israel on characteristic Jewish fingerprints, and from the 1970's, biologists in their laboratories (also in the U.S.) have sought a genetic marker common to all Jews. These attempts to justify Zionism through genetics is reminiscent of the procedures of late 19th century anthropologists who very scientifically set out to discover the specific characteristics of Europeans. As of to-day, no study based on anonymous DNA samples has succeeded in identifying a genetic marker specific to Jews, and it is not likely that any study ever will. The bitter irony to see the descendants of the Holocaust survivors set out to find a biological Jewish identity: Hitler would certainly have been very pleased. And it is even all the more repulsive that this kind of research should be conducted in a state that has waged for years a declared policy of "Judaization of the country" in which even to-day a Jew is not allowed to marry a non-Jew.
Source: Shlomo Sands; History Department University of Tel Aviv , Israel
B) The Old Testament was the basis on which contemporary Zionism justified their "return to the Promised Land of God's Chosen People". However their attempts to reconstruct the Bible so as to fit their ideological vision clashed with modern scientific research, anthropologically, ethnically and genetically. Findings at excavation sites over the last century have proved otherwise. Besides nobody knows who wrote the Old Testament. It had probably many authors, was edited and re-edited over the centuries and often contradicts itself. It is certainly not a history book. Also Zionist "historians" in the face of new and findings frequently had to change their stories. As a matter of interest, the Israeli Universities in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, have two history departments: the Department of General History and an Department of Jewish History ! So we have already established the fact that there is virtually a complete consensus amongst historians (on which the evidence presented here is based) that there never was an exodus, exile or expulsion of Jews in the first century ad.after the destruction of the second Temple and causing the alleged Diaspora of the Jewish people around the globe. So the question remains what happened to the Jewish population during that time. The answer is nothing (!), they remained where they had been for thousands of years before. Virtually all historians are pretty well unanimously convinced that the land of the Jews , which are genetically also Semites, was invaded and conquered by the Islamic Arab armies during the seventh century ad. and that the Jewish population en mass converted to Islam. The reason for this is that the Arabs offered the Jewish peasants tax exemptions it they converted to Islam, which proved to be powerful incentive for most of them to change religion. Those who stuck to the Jewish religion were well tolerated and even joined their brethren in the Arab armies in the conquest of the North African countries south of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Morocco, Ethiopia and into Spain ( Sephardim Jews) where they got as far as the Pyrenees. (Ethiopian Jews were later also invited into Zionist Israel). The Spanish Sephardim Jews were also well tolerated and were not persecuted until the 15th century. The Spanish Inquisition brought an end to this and many Jews fled into western Europe and England. The Jews became mainly proselytizers for the Jewish faith, but were eventually not able to compete against the spread of the Islamic and later Christian faith as they were accepted by the majority of the populace in Asian Minor and the people of the western world. Jewishness is sometimes denoted as a "women's religion" and one reason for men reluctant to embrace the Jewish faith was ritual circumcision.
The Khazar Empire. However what is more important in this narrative from a Jewish Diaspora perspective is the advances and conquests of the Islamic armies into Asian Minor, east of the Byzantium Empire, which stretched to about half way present day Turkey. In the North they advanced as far as present day Georgia, where they were halted by the Caucasian Mountains, west of the Caspian Sea. They also advanced to the north, east of the Caspian Sea, where the pagan tribes were converted to Islam and some to Judaism. However, the Islamic armies were not only halted by the Caucasian Mountains, but they were confronted by the Khazarians. The Khazarian Empire, with the capital Itil, stretched form north of the Caspian Sea to present day Ukraine, although the western parts of the empire (to-day's Ukraine) was inhabited by the Magyar under suzerainty of Khazaria. Its centre was situated at the Don delta. Khazaria is of unique importance because it reveals the ethnic origins of the people (Israelis) who to-day inhabit former Palestine. Khazaria in the eighth century ad. at the time of the Islamic expansion eastwards, was a for that time well organized, flourishing empire with a standing army. The population was a mixture of pagans, Christians and Islamics, living peacefully together. The Islamic armies failed to penetrate and conquer the territory of Khazaria. However towards the end of the eighth century the Khazar King (The Kagan) converted to Judaism. Reasons for his conversion are speculative, but it is thought to have been more of a shrewd diplomatic move so as to remain on a good footing with the two southern and eastern rival empires. After all Khazaria was faced with two adversities the Christian (Roman/Byzantine) empire as well as from the Islamic expansion in the east. Judaism became henceforth the state religion of the Khazars and a large number of the populace converted to the Jewish religion over the centuries. Although occasionally skirmishes took place against attempted, but unsuccesful incursions of the Islamic armies there was by and large a flourishing trade between the three rivals and Khazar trade routs extended well into the Islamic world, even as far as Baghdad. Although Jews were initially during the first millennium well tolerated and accepted in the Roman Empire, this came gradually to an end with the spreading of Christianity within the empire. Jews were given the choice to convert to Christianity or killed often in a gruesome manner. Many Jews choose to live and converted to the Christian faith, other die-hard Jews fled to Khazaria. But this was only a trickle in comparison with the mass conversions of Khazar people to the Jewish faith.
It were the East Scandinavian Vikings (Varangians) who towards the end of the first millennium brought the Khazar Empire to and end, although Khazaria as a state was to last for another two centuries. They were called the 'Rhos' (derived from Swedish 'rodhers' meaning rowers) from which our present day word Rus is derived. They came down the big rivers, the Don and the Dnjepper in huge fleets of some 500 boats, each with 100 warriors. However before that time the first waves of Magyars had already begun to migrate westwards to what to-day is Hungary. During the following four to five centuries this protracted migratory trek was subsequently followed by Khazarians, driven away first during the Viking/Khazar wars, later by the Mongol hordes from eastern Siberia and later also during the outbreak of the plague. These huge migrations over many centuries have accounted for the large numbers of Jews in eastern Europe, mainly in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and later to some extent Austria. A survey carried out round 1900 showed that there were some 500,000 Jews living in west Europe, against more than five million in eastern Europe. During the first half of the 20th century and as a result of Nazi persecutions in Germany, most west European Jews fled to America (and not to Palestine !). Before the second world war there had been a trickle of east European colonist Jews into Palestine, initially living in peaceful coexistence with the native Palestinians. Problems began when, after WW 2 huge numbers of East European displaced persons, from the Nazi concentration camps, began to upset the demographic composition of the country.
I shall finish this brief historical narrative with a quotation from Arthur Koestler book 'The Thirteenth Tribe'. But it is obvious that I cannot cover everything from his book in this blog, so I urge readers strongly to do some reading for themselves:
"The evidence quoted in previous chapters adds up to a strong case in favour of those modern historians - whether Austrian, Israeli or Polish - who, independently from each other, have argued that the bulk of modern Jewry is not of Palestinian, but from Caucasian origin.....The stream moved in a consistent westerly direction, from the Caucasus through the Ukraine into Poland and thence into Central Europe.....The numerical ratio of the Khazar to the Semitic and other contributions is impossible to establish. But the cumulative evidence makes one inclined to agree with the consensus of Polish historians that 'in earlier times the main bulk originated from the Khazar country'; and that accordingly, the Khazar contributions to the genetic make-up of the Jews must be substantial, and in all likelihood dominant".
In March 1983 the lifeless bodies of Arthur Koetsler and his wife were found in their London flat. Were they assassinated by agents of Israel's Mossad ?
Footnote: The important racial differences described in Koetsler's book were already fully documented and acknowledged in authoritative reference works, such as the Encyclopedia Judaica. The subject however was suppressed and never became available to the reading public. Koetsler's book "The Thirteenth Tribe" changed all that and the book became a major embarrassment to the Zionists. They were left in a difficult position and were unable to accuse him of anti-Semitism, because Koetsler was a Jew himself.
Go to Googles and enter: "Islamic Jewish Relations". It makes interesting reading, as it shows the very close similarities between Islam and Judaism.
Link to Post 5
