95% of Israelis are Ashkenazi and have no genetic relationship to the Levant, but rather the steppes of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. I'll provided more information on this in a momment, but first a little more information on the genetics if Sephardim Jews.

As an addition to what I posted, I think the following is important to add to which I ended it by showing the genetic relationship of Palestinians to Jews. Albeit, the study is indeed noteworthy, there is even more definitive information. The study above by Michael Hammer et al., had identified a genetic connection between Arabs (especially Syrians and Palestinians) and Jews, but had not tested Kurds, so it was less complete. More on this a little later.

A study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues, published in Human Genetics in December 2000, showed that about 70 percent of Jewish paternal ancestries and about 82 percent of Palestinian Arabs share the same chromosomal pool. The geneticists asserted that this might support the claim that Palestinian Arabs descend in part from Judeans [Latin, Iudaea'] who converted to Islam. As a side note, recall that the Israelites were carried off into captivity and the vacated lands were repopulated by the dictates of the Assyrians and foreigners were settled there. Later, the same was carried out by the Babylonians. Also, note that the Edomites were allies of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and they were rewarded by inheriting the lands of Judah as part of the spoils of war.

With their closer relationship to Jews, the Palestinian Arabs are distinctive from other Arab groups, such as Syrians, Lebanese, Saudis, and Iraqis, who have less of a connection to Jews.

In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people – more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested.

Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other. Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their diaspora.

From Kevin Alan Brook’s, “The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews”, he quotes an article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins). These people have a predominant craniometrical characteristic of being brachycephalic.

The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7 percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes – which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern European Christians – descend paternally from eastern Europeans (such as Slavs) or Khazars. Kevin Allan Brook is a Historian, Specialist on the Khazars, and Contributor to The Encyclopaedia of Judaism, Second Edition (Brill, 2005). His article was published at the “Jewish Coalition For Kurdistan”

95% of Israelis are Ashkenazi and have no genetic relationship to the Levant, but instead the steppes of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.

As an addition to what I posted, I think the following is important to add to the posting to which I ended it by showing the genetic relationship of Palestinians to Jews. Albeit, the study is indeed noteworthy, there is even more definitive information. The study above by Michael Hammer et al., had identified a genetic connection between Arabs (especially Syrians and Palestinians) and Jews, but had not tested Kurds, so it was less complete. More on this a little later.

A study by Ariella Oppenheim and her colleagues, published in Human Genetics in December 2000, showed that about 70 percent of Jewish paternal ancestries and about 82 percent of Palestinian Arabs share the same chromosomal pool. The geneticists asserted that this might support the claim that Palestinian Arabs descend in part from Judeans [Latin, Iudaea'] who converted to Islam. As a side note, recall that the Israelites were carried off into captivity and the vacated lands were repopulated by the dictates of the Assyrians and foreigners were settled there. Later, the same was carried out by the Babylonians. Also, note that the Edomites were allies of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and they were rewarded by inheriting the lands of Judah as part of the spoils of war.

With their closer relationship to Jews, the Palestinian Arabs are distinctive from other Arab groups, such as Syrians, Lebanese, Saudis, and Iraqis, who have less of a connection to Jews.

In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people – more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested.

Ashkenazic Jews have ancestors who lived in central and eastern Europe, while Sephardic Jews have ancestors from southwestern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. The Kurdish Jews and Sephardic Jews were found to be very close to each other. Both of these Jewish populations differed somewhat from Ashkenazic Jews, who mixed with European peoples during their diaspora.

From Kevin Alan Brook’s, “The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews”, he quotes an article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics, Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins). These people have a predominant craniometrical characteristic of being brachycephalic.

The researchers suggested that the approximately 12.7 percent of Ashkenazic Jews who have the Eu 19 chromosomes – which are found among between 54 and 60 percent of Eastern European Christians – descend paternally from eastern Europeans (such as Slavs) or Khazars. Kevin Allan Brook is a Historian, Specialist on the Khazars, and Contributor to The Encyclopaedia of Judaism, Second Edition (Brill, 2005). His article was published at the “Jewish Coalition For Kurdistan”