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Shattering a 'national mythology'
By Ofri Ilani
Tags: Palestinians 

Of all the national heroes who have arisen from among the Jewish people over the generations, fate has not been kind to Dahia al-Kahina, a leader of the Berbers in the Aures Mountains. Although she was a proud Jewess, few Israelis have ever heard the name of this warrior-queen who, in the seventh century C.E., united a number of Berber tribes and pushed back the Muslim army that invaded North Africa. It is possible that the reason for this is that al-Kahina was the daughter of a Berber tribe that had converted to Judaism, apparently several generations before she was born, sometime around the 6th century C.E.

According to the Tel Aviv University historian, Prof. Shlomo Sand, author of "Matai ve'ech humtza ha'am hayehudi?" ("When and How the Jewish People Was Invented?"; Resling, in Hebrew), the queen's tribe and other local tribes that converted to Judaism are the main sources from which Spanish Jewry sprang. This claim that the Jews of North Africa originated in indigenous tribes that became Jewish - and not in communities exiled from Jerusalem - is just one element of the far- reaching argument set forth in Sand's new book.

In this work, the author attempts to prove that the Jews now living in Israel and other places in the world are not at all descendants of the ancient people who inhabited the Kingdom of Judea during the First and Second Temple period. Their origins, according to him, are in varied peoples that converted to Judaism during the course of history, in different corners of the Mediterranean Basin and the adjacent regions. Not only are the North African Jews for the most part descendants of pagans who converted to Judaism, but so are the Jews of Yemen (remnants of the Himyar Kingdom in the Arab Peninsula, who converted to Judaism in the fourth century) and the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe (refugees from the Kingdom of the Khazars, who converted in the eighth century).
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Unlike other "new historians" who have tried to undermine the assumptions of Zionist historiography, Sand does not content himself with going back to 1948 or to the beginnings of Zionism, but rather goes back thousands of years. He tries to prove that the Jewish people never existed as a "nation-race" with a common origin, but rather is a colorful mix of groups that at various stages in history adopted the Jewish religion. He argues that for a number of Zionist ideologues, the mythical perception of the Jews as an ancient people led to truly racist thinking: "There were times when if anyone argued that the Jews belong to a people that has gentile origins, he would be classified as an anti-Semite on the spot. Today, if anyone dares to suggest that those who are considered Jews in the world ... have never constituted and still do not constitute a people or a nation - he is immediately condemned as a hater of Israel."

According to Sand, the description of the Jews as a wandering and self-isolating nation of exiles, "who wandered across seas and continents, reached the ends of the earth and finally, with the advent of Zionism, made a U-turn and returned en masse to their orphaned homeland," is nothing but "national mythology." Like other national movements in Europe, which sought out a splendid Golden Age, through which they invented a heroic past - for example, classical Greece or the Teutonic tribes - to prove they have existed since the beginnings of history, "so, too, the first buds of Jewish nationalism blossomed in the direction of the strong light that has its source in the mythical Kingdom of David."

So when, in fact, was the Jewish people invented, in Sand's view? At a certain stage in the 19th century, intellectuals of Jewish origin in Germany, influenced by the folk character of German nationalism, took upon themselves the task of inventing a people "retrospectively," out of a thirst to create a modern Jewish people. From historian Heinrich Graetz on, Jewish historians began to draw the history of Judaism as the history of a nation that had been a kingdom, became a wandering people and ultimately turned around and went back to its birthplace.

Actually, most of your book does not deal with the invention of the Jewish people by modern Jewish nationalism, but rather with the question of where the Jews come from.

Sand: "My initial intention was to take certain kinds of modern historiographic materials and examine how they invented the 'figment' of the Jewish people. But when I began to confront the historiographic sources, I suddenly found contradictions. And then that urged me on: I started to work, without knowing where I would end up. I took primary sources and I tried to examine authors' references in the ancient period - what they wrote about conversion."

Sand, an expert on 20th-century history, has until now researched the intellectual history of modern France (in "Ha'intelektual, ha'emet vehakoah: miparashat dreyfus ve'ad milhemet hamifrats" - "Intellectuals, Truth and Power, From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War"; Am Oved, in Hebrew). Unusually, for a professional historian, in his new book he deals with periods that he had never researched before, usually relying on studies that present unorthodox views of the origins of the Jews.

Experts on the history of the Jewish people say you are dealing with subjects about which you have no understanding and are basing yourself on works that you can't read in the original.

"It is true that I am an historian of France and Europe, and not of the ancient period. I knew that the moment I would start dealing with early periods like these, I would be exposed to scathing criticism by historians who specialize in those areas. But I said to myself that I can't stay just with modern historiographic material without examining the facts it describes. Had I not done this myself, it would have been necessary to have waited for an entire generation. Had I continued to deal with France, perhaps I would have been given chairs at the university and provincial glory. But I decided to relinquish the glory."

Inventing the Diaspora

"After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people remained faithful to it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom" - thus states the preamble to the Israeli Declaration of Independence. This is also the quotation that opens the third chapter of Sand's book, entitled "The Invention of the Diaspora." Sand argues that the Jewish people's exile from its land never happened.

"The supreme paradigm of exile was needed in order to construct a long-range memory in which an imagined and exiled nation-race was posited as the direct continuation of 'the people of the Bible' that preceded it," Sand explains. Under the influence of other historians who have dealt with the same issue in recent years, he argues that the exile of the Jewish people is originally a Christian myth that depicted that event as divine punishment imposed on the Jews for having rejected the Christian gospel.

"I started looking in research studies about the exile from the land - a constitutive event in Jewish history, almost like the Holocaust. But to my astonishment I discovered that it has no literature. The reason is that no one exiled the people of the country. The Romans did not exile peoples and they could not have done so even if they had wanted to. They did not have trains and trucks to deport entire populations. That kind of logistics did not exist until the 20th century. From this, in effect, the whole book was born: in the realization that Judaic society was not dispersed and was not exiled."

If the people was not exiled, are you saying that in fact the real descendants of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah are the Palestinians?

"No population remains pure over a period of thousands of years. But the chances that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Judaic people are much greater than the chances that you or I are its descendents. The first Zionists, up until the Arab Revolt [1936-9], knew that there had been no exiling, and that the Palestinians were descended from the inhabitants of the land. They knew that farmers don't leave until they are expelled. Even Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, wrote in 1929 that, 'the vast majority of the peasant farmers do not have their origins in the Arab conquerors, but rather, before then, in the Jewish farmers who were numerous and a majority in the building of the land.'"

And how did millions of Jews appear around the Mediterranean Sea?

"The people did not spread, but the Jewish religion spread. Judaism was a converting religion. Contrary to popular opinion, in early Judaism there was a great thirst to convert others. The Hasmoneans were the first to begin to produce large numbers of Jews through mass conversion, under the influence of Hellenism. The conversions between the Hasmonean Revolt and Bar Kochba's rebellion are what prepared the ground for the subsequent, wide-spread dissemination of Christianity. After the victory of Christianity in the fourth century, the momentum of conversion was stopped in the Christian world, and there was a steep drop in the number of Jews. Presumably many of the Jews who appeared around the Mediterranean became Christians. But then Judaism started to permeate other regions - pagan regions, for example, such as Yemen and North Africa. Had Judaism not continued to advance at that stage and had it not continued to convert people in the pagan world, we would have remained a completely marginal religion, if we survived at all."

How did you come to the conclusion that the Jews of North Africa were originally Berbers who converted?

"I asked myself how such large Jewish communities appeared in Spain. And then I saw that Tariq ibn Ziyad, the supreme commander of the Muslims who conquered Spain, was a Berber, and most of his soldiers were Berbers. Dahia al-Kahina's Jewish Berber kingdom had been defeated only 15 years earlier. And the truth is there are a number of Christian sources that say many of the conquerors of Spain were Jewish converts. The deep-rooted source of the large Jewish community in Spain was those Berber soldiers who converted to Judaism."

Sand argues that the most crucial demographic addition to the Jewish population of the world came in the wake of the conversion of the kingdom of Khazaria - a huge empire that arose in the Middle Ages on the steppes along the Volga River, which at its height ruled over an area that stretched from the Georgia of today to Kiev. In the eighth century, the kings of the Khazars adopted the Jewish religion and made Hebrew the written language of the kingdom. From the 10th century the kingdom weakened; in the 13th century is was utterly defeated by Mongol invaders, and the fate of its Jewish inhabitants remains unclear.

Sand revives the hypothesis, which was already suggested by historians in the 19th and 20th centuries, according to which the Judaized Khazars constituted the main origins of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.

"At the beginning of the 20th century there is a tremendous concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe - three million Jews in Poland alone," he says. "The Zionist historiography claims that their origins are in the earlier Jewish community in Germany, but they do not succeed in explaining how a small number of Jews who came from Mainz and Worms could have founded the Yiddish people of Eastern Europe. The Jews of Eastern Europe are a mixture of Khazars and Slavs who were pushed eastward."

'Degree of perversion'

If the Jews of Eastern Europe did not come from Germany, why did they speak Yiddish, which is a Germanic language?

"The Jews were a class of people dependent on the German bourgeoisie in the East, and thus they adopted German words. Here I base myself on the research of linguist Paul Wechsler of Tel Aviv University, who has demonstrated that there is no etymological connection between the German Jewish language of the Middle Ages and Yiddish. As far back as 1828, the Ribal (Rabbi Isaac Ber Levinson) said that the ancient language of the Jews was not Yiddish. Even Ben Zion Dinur, the father of Israeli historiography, was not hesitant about describing the Khazars as the origin of the Jews in Eastern Europe, and describes Khazaria as 'the mother of the diasporas' in Eastern Europe. But more or less since 1967, anyone who talks about the Khazars as the ancestors of the Jews of Eastern Europe is considered naive and moonstruck."

Why do you think the idea of the Khazar origins is so threatening?

"It is clear that the fear is of an undermining of the historic right to the land. The revelation that the Jews are not from Judea would ostensibly knock the legitimacy for our being here out from under us. Since the beginning of the period of decolonization, settlers have no longer been able to say simply: 'We came, we won and now we are here' the way the Americans, the whites in South Africa and the Australians said. There is a very deep fear that doubt will be cast on our right to exist."

Is there no justification for this fear?

"No. I don't think that the historical myth of the exile and the wanderings is the source of the legitimization for me being here, and therefore I don't mind believing that I am Khazar in my origins. I am not afraid of the undermining of our existence, because I think that the character of the State of Israel undermines it in a much more serious way. What would constitute the basis for our existence here is not mythological historical right, but rather would be for us to start to establish an open society here of all Israeli citizens."

In effect you are saying that there is no such thing as a Jewish people.

"I don't recognize an international people. I recognize 'the Yiddish people' that existed in Eastern Europe, which though it is not a nation can be seen as a Yiddishist civilization with a modern popular culture. I think that Jewish nationalism grew up in the context of this 'Yiddish people.' I also recognize the existence of an Israeli people, and do not deny its right to sovereignty. But Zionism and also Arab nationalism over the years are not prepared to recognize it.

"From the perspective of Zionism, this country does not belong to its citizens, but rather to the Jewish people. I recognize one definition of a nation: a group of people that wants to live in sovereignty over itself. But most of the Jews in the world have no desire to live in the State of Israel, even though nothing is preventing them from doing so. Therefore, they cannot be seen as a nation."

What is so dangerous about Jews imagining that they belong to one people? Why is this bad?

"In the Israeli discourse about roots there is a degree of perversion. This is an ethnocentric, biological, genetic discourse. But Israel has no existence as a Jewish state: If Israel does not develop and become an open, multicultural society we will have a Kosovo in the Galilee. The consciousness concerning the right to this place must be more flexible and varied, and if I have contributed with my book to the likelihood that I and my children will be able to live with the others here in this country in a more egalitarian situation - I will have done my bit.

"We must begin to work hard to transform our place into an Israeli republic where ethnic origin, as well as faith, will not be relevant in the eyes of the law. Anyone who is acquainted with the young elites of the Israeli Arab community can see that they will not agree to live in a country that declares it is not theirs. If I were a Palestinian I would rebel against a state like that, but even as an Israeli I am rebelling against it."

The question is whether for those conclusions you had to go as far as the Kingdom of the Khazars.

"I am not hiding the fact that it is very distressing for me to live in a society in which the nationalist principles that guide it are dangerous, and that this distress has served as a motive in my work. I am a citizen of this country, but I am also a historian and as a historian it is my duty to write history and examine texts. This is what I have done."

If the myth of Zionism is one of the Jewish people that returned to its land from exile, what will be the myth of the country you envision?

"To my mind, a myth about the future is better than introverted mythologies of the past. For the Americans, and today for the Europeans as well, what justifies the existence of the nation is a future promise of an open, progressive and prosperous society. The Israeli materials do exist, but it is necessary to add, for example, pan-Israeli holidays. To decrease the number of memorial days a bit and to add days that are dedicated to the future. But also, for example, to add an hour in memory of the Nakba [literally, the "catastrophe" - the Palestinian term for what happened when Israel was established], between Memorial Day and Independence Day."
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  1.   Powerful argument in favour of the democratic one state solution 18:55  |  Ben Alofs 21/03/08
  2.   Convennient omissions 21:41  |  David 21/03/08
  3.   The only old myth Professor Sand shatters is the one that all 22:17  |  Aimad 21/03/08
  4.   Lacks a factual basis 22:45  |  Jewish Studies prof. 21/03/08
  5.   Ground braking research 23:02  |  Lobo08 21/03/08
  6.   national mythology 23:15  |  Shmuelshachor 21/03/08
  7.   "I asked myself" 23:16  |  5th generation 21/03/08
  8.   and of course the recent genetic studies 23:39  |  Realist 21/03/08
  9.   #4: What "fact" is that? 23:51  |  Global Citizen 21/03/08
  10.   DNA shatters Khazar theory 00:02  |  Esther 22/03/08
  11.   The thirteenth Tribe, not 00:14  |  Ethel 22/03/08
  12.   Wrong 00:24  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  13.   shattering 00:34  |  Lois 22/03/08
  14.   national suicide 00:47  |  martin 22/03/08
  15.   This "Prof." is forgetting one thing... 01:12  |  Joe 22/03/08
  16.   Read the Bible 01:31  |  Daoud 22/03/08
  17.   WHO BELIEVE THIS IDIOT?!! 01:38  |  Tom 22/03/08
  18.   National Mythology 01:54  |  Enoch 22/03/08
  19.   Genetic Testing 02:13  |  Avi 22/03/08
  20.   The Research is so full of Holes 02:15  |  Afflalou 22/03/08
  21.   He shatters nothing!!! 02:56  |  Yaakov 22/03/08
  22.   #3 02:56  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  23.   #1 04:05  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  24.   I finished 11 years of schooling in Yidish langauge and 05:19  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 22/03/08
  25.   he is not the first, freud beat him to it and other "intellectual 05:23  |  ralph 22/03/08
  26.   Arthur Koestler? 07:28  |  Vilgot T 22/03/08
  27.   Blueprint 07:57  |  Vilgot T 22/03/08
  28.   Jewish origins 09:20  |  dave s. 22/03/08
  29.   I am a geneticist and knows he is wrong 09:43  |  Asher 22/03/08
  30.   I am anxious about the real level of TA University 10:08  |  Gideon 22/03/08
  31.   So what??? 10:11  |  michel 22/03/08
  32.   #23 Arth, Middle Eastern origin or not should not matter 10:32  |  Ben Alofs 22/03/08
  33.   #29 12:51  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  34.   #32 14:52  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  35.   #32 [2] 15:00  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  36.   I feel sick with this DNA B.S. 15:11  |  Anton 22/03/08
  37.   #32 [3] 15:49  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  38.   His own words disqualify him 18:36  |  Freethinker 22/03/08
  39.   #37 Arth, Sand`s argument is about the future 19:13  |  Ben Alofs 22/03/08
  40.   #39 20:49  |  ARTH 22/03/08
  41.   It`s Sand`s Concept of a People that`s Racist and False 22:30  |  nh 22/03/08
  42.   #40 Arth 04:50  |  Ben Alofs 23/03/08
  43.   What does Sand want to say? 14:58  |  AliciaYasmeen 23/03/08
  44.   Does it Make a Difference? 17:55  |  MIKE 23/03/08
  45.   Nationalist principles 18:09  |  Dina 23/03/08
  46.   Israel is the Nation-State of the Jews 18:25  |  MIKE 23/03/08
  47.   #6 Shmuel Shahor 19:19  |  Wolf 23/03/08
  48.   shattering a national mythology 21:43  |  robert nebb 23/03/08
  49.   GENETIC 22:07  |  DAVID 23/03/08
  50.   Incidentally, "Jewess" is a derogatory term in... 22:15  |  DJStahl 23/03/08
  51.   Pardon? 22:22  |  George 23/03/08
  52.   Rome, Khazars, Gellner, Anton`s sickness, etc. 22:29  |  DJStahl 23/03/08
  53.   Jews from the Bible are not the modern Jews 22:31  |  Yaakov Sullivan 23/03/08
  54.   Sand is an Idiot and Haaretz is a rag 22:32  |  Humble Jew 23/03/08
  55.   Rome, Khazars, Gellner, Anton`s sickness, etc. (2) 22:39  |  DJStahl 23/03/08
  56.   The Truth For Free! 22:55  |  Simeon ben Jacob 23/03/08
  57.   Studing Nazi Sciense 23:30  |  Yechiel 23/03/08
  58.   No Ancient Jewish People?? Ever hear of David, Solomon, Jesus? 23:33  |  B`Galil 23/03/08
  59.   Great! The Kazars spoke YIDDISH!! 23:33  |  Haredi 23/03/08
  60.   Facts bent to fit agenda 00:34  |  Sherlock Holmes 24/03/08
  61.   What makes a Jew a Jew? 00:40  |  Ben Azai 24/03/08
  62.   Revisionism 00:43  |  Joe 24/03/08
  63.   One mans word against many who wrote Bible 01:13  |  marilyn 24/03/08
  64.   Research Islam Next 01:15  |  Avi Rabinowitz 24/03/08
  65.   Mid East Genetic Disease FMF 01:38  |  john defur 24/03/08
  66.   King David returns 01:48  |  B. Schaepdryver 24/03/08
  67.   Anti-Zionists: your latest token is here! Come and get him! 02:09  |  Serge 24/03/08
  68.   Serious Academic Question - IRAN 03:31  |  John 24/03/08
  69.   # 29 ASHER 03:43  |  George 24/03/08
  70.   John..Jews of Iran 03:59  |  john defur 24/03/08
  71.   This argues for mass conversion ... 04:08  |  anon 24/03/08
  72.   History repeats itself 04:43  |  Rene 24/03/08
  73.   Genetic studies actually CONFIRM Sand`s thesis 04:57  |  Y 24/03/08
  74.   "they did not have trains and trucks to deport people" 05:03  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 24/03/08
  75.   Shattering a `national mythology` 05:14  |  David Owen 24/03/08
  76.   DNA studies discredit Khazar origin theory (wikipedia) 05:34  |  a 24/03/08
  77.   Only Antisemites would think that Philistine Arabs are pure 06:08  |  Genuine Tosefta 24/03/08
  78.   Europe Jews are Khazars & not one word of Kahazarian in Yiddish? 06:11  |  Genuine Tosefta 24/03/08
  79.   3rd Century Jewish Graves found in Austria 09:33  |  Laila 24/03/08
  80.   Simplistic understanding of the Khazars? 10:24  |  ted 24/03/08
  81.   Dilittantism 11:58  |  Johns Hopkins 24/03/08
  82.   what does an academic do when he`s obsolete? 12:37  |  D Hirod 24/03/08
  83.   The DNA evidence so far does not contradict Sand 12:58  |  Ben Alofs 24/03/08
  84.   Jewish history reduced by Zionism to a crude two-stage model 13:53  |  Ben Alofs 24/03/08
  85.   History is important, but one must deal with the present 14:16  |  Ben Alofs 24/03/08
  86.   History is important, but one must deal with the present 14:18  |  Ben Alofs 24/03/08
  87.   AM YISROEL CHI! 14:34  |  Dodi Mort 24/03/08
  88.   Did this Guy do any Research? 15:46  |  D Hirod 24/03/08
  89.   national suicide 15:48  |  chalom 24/03/08
  90.   why does HAARETZ participate in Israel-hating campaigns? 16:05  |  chalom 24/03/08
  91.   THE 2 State Solution, the only way out... 16:05  |  john defur 24/03/08
  92.   SHlomo Sand 16:57  |  David Gershon 24/03/08
  93.   No nation is 100% pure 18:26  |  H 24/03/08
  94.   Anti-zionism is anti-semitism today 18:33  |  Ethel 24/03/08
  95.   Hitler and the final solution 18:51  |  Ethel 24/03/08
  96.   Re #73, 86 Y, Why, and Why? 18:52  |  DJStahl 24/03/08
  97.   Sand actually is aligned with Charedi racists 19:00  |  DJStahl 24/03/08
  98.   Jews are the aborigines of Judea 19:00  |  Hal 24/03/08
  99.   Converts to Judaism are surprisingly few 19:21  |  Haldrik 24/03/08
  100.   Two Quick Points 19:28  |  Tom 24/03/08
  101.   Would the learned doctor recognize an Israeli people made of Jews 19:57  |  G 24/03/08
  102.   19th century invention? 19:58  |  Bertram 24/03/08
  103.   Should open Debate not accusations 22:35  |  Donald 24/03/08
  104.   national mythology 23:22  |  psi 24/03/08
  105.   to Wolf on #47 23:30  |  Shmuelshachor 24/03/08
  106.   Ben-Zion Netanyahu proves it 01:27  |  andy 25/03/08
  107.   This guy needs to check his facts. 01:51  |  Sari 25/03/08
  108.   Proof Palestine is Arab 02:08  |  Shulamit 25/03/08
  109.   Alofs (#1) 02:26  |  jjvanka 25/03/08
  110.   It`s the "Palestinians" that don`t exist! 04:51  |  Palestiniansareamyth 25/03/08
  111.   Ben Alofs, Could that State be Called Palestine? 04:58  |  Reader 25/03/08
  112.   Sand is a clown, whose scholarship is substandard 04:58  |  Jack 25/03/08
  113.   Political and Publicity Motivations 05:06  |  Glenn 25/03/08
  114.   Shattering a national mythology 05:09  |  Ralph 25/03/08
  115.   #83 DNA FULLY Contradicts Sands! 05:38  |  Jeff 25/03/08
  116.   This researche is incorrect. There were exiles in ancient times 07:47  |  Sam 25/03/08
  117.   Freud showed the way 08:06  |  I.N.Cogntio 25/03/08
  118.   This makes sense 08:09  |  Denise 25/03/08
  119.   Who is a Jew? 09:44  |  Gary Cooperberg 25/03/08
  120.   TAU and HaAretz - losers 11:28  |  Jake Livni 25/03/08
  121.   Purim ain`t over yet! 11:56  |  Mordechai HaYehudi 25/03/08
  122.   well you dope, there`s one now 12:47  |  richard 25/03/08
  123.   Khazars were an Iranian People 13:32  |  Raad 25/03/08
  124.   But Ethel, those tribes were in the ME 13:39  |  Yaakov Sullivan 25/03/08
  125.   Ideologically motivated BS 14:46  |  d 25/03/08
  126.   Ben Alofs - Repeating a falseness doesn`t make it true 14:58  |  J. Livni 25/03/08
  127.   Guy just wants to make a few bucks on his BS 15:03  |  d 25/03/08
  128.   A purim from hell 15:27  |  Ethel 25/03/08
  129.   "Mythology" or poor research? 16:01  |  Jacques 25/03/08
  130.   science and archaelogy 16:37  |  bastet 25/03/08
  131.   WHAT? 16:41  |  soggy liberal 25/03/08
  132.   Be careful what you wish for 16:54  |  Jo 25/03/08
  133.   Then it is all about religious faith or not 16:56  |  Jo 25/03/08
  134.   Genetic origin of North Africa Jews 18:00  |  Gilbert 25/03/08
  135.   Utter nonsense 18:04  |  Danite 25/03/08
  136.   Genesis 12 18:05  |  Josh 25/03/08
  137.   Ben Alofs 18:06  |  danite 25/03/08
  138.   Genetic origin of North Africa Jews 18:54  |  Gilbert 25/03/08
  139.   Spinning, spinning, spinning 19:57  |  Dizzy 25/03/08
  140.   The Kohanim, Genes and the Lemba 21:24  |  Yaakov Sullivan 25/03/08
  141.   Pop lit 22:25  |  MH 25/03/08
  142.   Genuine Tosefta what is Khazarian ? 22:36  |  Truth 25/03/08
  143.   Asher move to Turkey ? 22:40  |  Truth 25/03/08
  144.   Sherlock Holmes and walking on water 22:43  |  Truth 25/03/08
  145.   J.Livni and utter rubbish 22:48  |  Truth 25/03/08
  146.   The DNA Does not support this thesis 23:14  |  Jordan 25/03/08
  147.   Yaakov Sullivan # 140 00:10  |  Gilbert 26/03/08
  148.   Re #103, 106 Inquisition, etc. 01:03  |  DJStahl 26/03/08
  149.   Re #142, 145 Yiddish, nationality, etc. 01:15  |  DJStahl 26/03/08
  150.   #119 Gary Cooperberg 01:28  |  Boycott 26/03/08
  151.   Yaakov Sullivan 02:18  |  Elihu Stone 26/03/08
  152.   Truth - Really?? 02:26  |  Elihu 26/03/08
  153.   "National Mythology" indeed 04:56  |  Dr. Protein 26/03/08
  154.   Excellent! Enough with rhetoric and semantics 07:30  |  Anti-nationalist 26/03/08
  155.   NATIONAL MYTHOLOGY 07:41  |  Roberto 26/03/08
  156.   Two problems with what he says 18:33  |  Israeli 26/03/08
  157.   Ideology Over Actual Knowledge 18:50  |  ARTH 26/03/08
  158.   I dont care 20:58  |  sweis Melbourne 26/03/08
  159.   genetic testing 04:28  |  molly 27/03/08
  160.   ELS Codes in Tanakh prove author wrong 04:38  |  Bob Hamrick 27/03/08
  161.   Jewish racial purity 04:51  |  Ryan 27/03/08
  162.   chitter chatter 05:22  |  farmer giles 27/03/08
  163.   Kosher mythology (lol) 13:48  |  Bonheur 27/03/08
  164.   No mass exodus from Israel in Bible 22:23  |  angel 27/03/08
  165.   Where the Jews of 2000 years ago disappeared? 00:43  |  Dr S. Yoram 28/03/08
  166.   Josephus Flavius 09:37  |  sweis Melbourne 28/03/08
  167.   The Torah is the Authority on the subject 21:08  |  A. Magnus 28/03/08
  168.   "Jews" of the Crimea still speak Khazar "Yiddish" 21:44  |  Dumpster Judean 29/03/08
  169.   At least 60 % of Ashkenazi Cohens NOT jewish ? 00:24  |  TAB 30/03/08
  170.   Irrelevant Drivel 00:44  |  Harold S Kramer 30/03/08
  171.   The Truth is always somewhere between the lies 20:55  |  Adam 30/03/08
  172.   The Truth is always somewhere between the lies 2 21:02  |  Adam 30/03/08
  173.   The Truth is always somewhere between the lies 3 21:11  |  Adam 30/03/08
  174.   The Truth is always somewhere between the lies 4 21:13  |  Adam 30/03/08
  175.   Intermarrige has surprisingly the opposite result! 02:01  |  Yechiel 31/03/08
  176.   Is there no Irish nation? 18:28  |  Gilead 31/03/08
  177.   Garbage in garbage out 01:09  |  Leo 06/04/08
  178.   Ahistorical nonsense - 145 13:37  |  Jake Livni 07/04/08
  179.   A different perspective 12:48  |  Jay Schrader 08/04/08
  180.   khazaria 15:15  |  tom 16/04/08
  181.   INNER JOURNEY 08:07  |  ALBERT 20/04/08
  182.   Peer review of Sand`s research is necessary 15:31  |  ARA 13/05/08
  183.   The Fallacy of Biological Judaism 23:51  |  raphael 16/06/08
  184.   I agree with Sand 21:26  |  Rick 21/07/08
  185.   Some remarks 14:30  |  Eloi 10/08/08
  186.   response to Shmuelshachor 01:37  |  Romana 15/08/08
  187.   Another Koestler "Khazar" kopy kat. 00:57  |  Jack Garbuz 16/08/08
  188.   History of the Jewish People 23:53  |  Phil 02/09/08
  189.   shattering a " national mythology " 16:35  |  dingdong 06/09/08
  190.   the wandering who 06:30  |  priestess4 08/09/08
  191.   jews are one people!! 06:56  |  Ali 10/09/08
  192.   Soft interview ignores scientific DNA evidence 09:17  |  Leeron 26/09/08
  193.   I am a Syrian 14:07  |  Anoos 15/10/08
  194.   #170 Circular Logic 18:53  |  Patriot 15/10/08
  195.   Why does Yiddish differ so much from Hebrew 06:48  |  Blue 16/10/08
  196.   Jewish State 06:02  |  Yer Mawm 19/10/08
  197.   Zion 06:11  |  Yer Mawm 19/10/08
  198.   God is TRUTH, Satan is LIES 17:45  |  Excorcist 826 19/10/08
  199.   DNA-Testing for All Jews 22:30  |  MARIO DIGRATO 19/10/08
  200.   All beside the point, really 08:36  |  Wayne Butler 24/10/08
  201.   Shlomo gives the Jews the right to Israel 23:29  |  José Frajtag 01/11/08
  202.   Answering Ben Alofs 19:30  |  José Frajtag 05/11/08
  203.   shattering a anationl mythology 22:44  |  Sean casey 25/11/08
  204.   Racial origins are irrelevant. 02:37  |  PFR 26/11/08
  205.   Right to exist 20:41  |  Omashkooz 30/11/08
  206.   Khazars 00:14  |  José Frajtag 25/12/08
  207.   Gilead: there is an Irish nation... 17:57  |  AT 29/03/09
  208.   H: the British and French are not nations because they`re pure. 18:03  |  AT 29/03/09
  209.   Khazars or Slave girls, who cares? 02:39  |  Eugene W. 13/04/09
  210.   DNA is not in contradiction with Sand 20:05  |  koen 21/04/09
  211.   show me the money 14:59  |  george 02/06/09
  212.   a little too much 15:03  |  fred 02/06/09
  213.   Great Work 18:03  |  Magid Shihade 16/06/09
  214.   Well Said.... 19:06  |  Mick 21/07/09
  215.   The Strange Beliefs of Shlomo Cook 05:42  |  Jeff Grunfeld 15/10/09
  216.   One Wolrld One Love 04:11  |  sander roth 20/10/09
  217.   Well Said.... Mick 06:45  |  Rick 24/10/09
  218.   shlomo sand 19:26  |  yael 27/10/09
  219.   Israelite history is in archaeological record 20:18  |  ralf ellis 15/11/09
  220.   Finally 05:04  |  Craig 18/11/09
  221.   lies 18:51  |  ron 18/11/09
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