Questions

The classic narrative promoted by the State of Israel is that Palestinians are late-arriving colonizers to this land. Netanyahu frequently emphasizes this point.

In reality, Palestinians are genetically closer to the ancient Israelite samples that Israelis claim as their ancestors. This is because Jews did not reproduce in isolation to the extent many people assume; over the centuries, they mixed with Latins, Germanic peoples, and to some extent Slavs. As a result, only about half of their ancestry is Levantine. The evidence for this comes from genetics—the science that, in my view, carries more weight than the Torah.

The most ironic part is that, according to traditional Jewish belief, Samaritans are not considered "true Israelites" because they supposedly mixed with foreign peoples settled by the Assyrian Empire. Yet genetic evidence indicates that the Samaritans are among the best-preserved descendants of the ancient Israelites.

There's also a litmus test for figuring out who is indigenous. Here's how it works: spend a lot of time under the sun. If you end up with skin cancer, you'll know you came later. White Australians suffer from this far more than Aboriginal Australians. And then there are Israeli Jews—Palestinians do not develop skin cancer as frequently as they do.