[rmlew]

Also, when Assyria crushed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, many refugees moved south. But putting that aside, the genes of Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi) are are closes to Samaritans (they still exist) and Kurds.

I've never understood the desire of Europeans to imagine themselves Northern Israelites. They betray their history in a desire to be a remnant of a group sent to oblivion for horrible behavior?

[jjotto]

It’s the ‘true Israel’ problem.

Official Christian belief is that Christians became ‘true Israel’ and Jews are no different from Chinese in God’s will. But the plain text of the Bible leads to a periodic return to the belief in Jews as ‘chosen’ for the future as well as the past.

‘British Israelism’ and the like are an attempt to have it both ways: To have the ‘right’ religion and also to have ‘true Israel’ bloodlines.