Twelfth Dynasty exhibits the characteristics of a regime that would have enslaved the Hebrews. The country had been disunited and they came up from the south and established a strong central government. They then sent their troops to the east to conquer territory. The Hebrews were living on the northern border area and were considered a security threat. The Hebrews had to be brought to heel. They also launched huge building projects including the famed labyrinth so they needed lots of workers. Under them was a great flowering of literature, later considered the golden age, so when Moses came along at the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty, he would have gotten an excellent eduction in writing preparing him to record the Torah in another language.
It was not as if they did not know Joseph. They did not Zaphnathpaneah. That was his Egyptian name, “Neith says he will live.” The Hebrews were regarded as worshippers of Neith and settled in Neith country because his wife Osnath was a priestess of the goddess Neith. The southerners did not know Neith, who was based in the north. She was the mother of Isis and Athena and made a comeback later so that the Greeks knew her very well.
Coming out in the Exodus, I agree with Velikovsky that the Hebrews met the Hyksos, a Semitic people coming in. The land to which the Hebrews were going was normally under Egyptian control. Had the Egyptians not been knocked out of the game, so to speak, for a few hundred years, the Hebrews could not have conquered that land because they would have had to face Egyptian regulars who could come up quickly via a coastal road. As a matter of fact when the Babylonians under Cushan saw there were a power vacuum they moved in to take over the country. The Hebrews would have been lost except two great leaders arose, Othniel and his wife Achsah. She was the daughter of the great Caleb the Hero and he was his nephew. They drove out the Babylonians and established security for 40 years.
Thanks idov!