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Israel's favoured historical narrative defines the state's proclaimed right to existence. It claims the world's Jews are descended from the ancient tribes of Israel, evicted by the Romans after the fall of the temple in 70AD, with the predetermined right to their rightful homeland after almost 2,000 years of foreign persecution.

Zionism has distorted the alleged history of the Jewish people and has reshaped or distorted it in modern times to fit their political requirements. The invention of the Jewish people by Shlomo Sand has enraged Israelis because this formidable polemic has railed against the Israeli right to define itself as a fully Jewish society to the exclusion of non-Jews such as Palestino-Israelis. Sand dismisses the claim that Israel existed as a nation for thousands of years which is based on treating the Old Testament as factually correct when it simply a theological discourse. Rome certainly behaved brutally after the fall of the temple but never expelled whole populations, they were far too useful as slaves.

Historical evidence confirms large Jewish populations living all over the Mediterranean, including Rome before 70AD where Cicero, in 59AD described them as numerous. Most Jews remained in Palestine even after the fall of the temple, eventually converting to Islam following the Muslim conquest in the the 7th century onwards. Some modern Palestinians are more likely to be descended from the ancient Israelites than the modern Israelis who migrated from Russia.The large European Jewish populations were indigenous people who converted to Judaism by small numbers of prosleytizing Jews. The Khazar Jewish empire that developed between the Volga and the Caucasus during the 4th and 13th centuries provided the origin for large Eastern European Jewish communities. This Khazar empire is not accepted by modern Zionists. Could this centre challenge the Jewish homeland of Israel?

Essentially, Jewish people are united by the bond of religion not by race or an ancient nation state. The Israeli state is racially based with Arabs considered second class citizens in the Israel state. This state's ethnic-centric foundation is an obstacle to a modern liberal democracy.

Sand's controversial book dismisses the legend of ancient exile and modern return this being central to Israel's self belief. The author refutes the fanatical insistence that history is made convenient to modern political needs in defiance of hard evidence or probability.

It is possible to accept there is no common genetic link either between the world diaspora of Jews or indeed to the ancient tribes of Israel, however, the entrepreneurial genius of the Jews is a definite characteristic that cannot be denied.

The rights or wrongs or wrongs and rights aside, Israel exists and is well established. If peace in the Middle East is possible then all parties must abandon all claims and grievances based on history and face the future now and in the future.

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