159 About origins

Some historical questions were recently raised by correspondents about the origins of the Jewish people and their "return to the Promised Land". However the overwhelming majority of immigrants to Palestine after WW2  are genetically and ethnically of Russian/East European origin (e.g. Netanyahu's family name before 1910 was Mileikowski  from Belarus)  There is a consensus amongst secular historians that Jews and Palestinians were both Canaanites who are believed to have embraced the 'one God religion' between 1000 and 700 BC, the first monotheist religion.  It was during the rule of  King Joshua that Judaism became the overall dominant religion.  The rapid emergence and acceptance of Islam took place between 600 and 800 AD and quickly expanded across the entire Middle  East. From 700 AD Islam expanded further westward across North Africa as far as the southern half of Spain (Sephardi Jews) and eastward into southern Russia. Judaism, although now a minority religion still coexisted peacefully with Islam. The Jews who had joined the Islamic armies became proselytizers for the Jewish religion. The King of Khazaria (southern Russia) converted to Judaism in 740 AD and so did his subjects. The two religions coexisted peacefully until the beginning of the 20th century. After WW2   Jewish people from the concentration camps were en mass transported to Palestine. In 1947 America was prepared to absorb 400,000 Holocaust survivors (the Straton Bill) but the bill was defeated by the Jewish lobby, who wanted manpower for their new state. European Jews have always preferred America as their 'chosen country' and few American Jews are willing to swap America for Israel.