Israeli Scholar Disputes Founding Myth
In When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, Dr. Sand, an expert on European history at the University of Tel Aviv, says the Diaspora was largely a myth – that the Jews were never exiled en masse from the Holy Land and that many European Jewish populations converted to the faith centuries later.
Thus, Sand argues, many of today’s Israelis who emigrated from Europe after World War II have little or no genealogical connection to the land. ...
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Here is the response from a friend who is very involved in the Anti-Defamation League: "I cannot speak about the history but to me it is meaningless. First of all, anyone who was close enough to have had a conversation with Arafat is suspect to me. Second, Israel was granted the right to exist by the UN, not by force. Immediately thereafter they were attacked by the Arabs. Their legitimacy comes from this not whether or not God gave it to them or the origins of the Diaspora."