“I have my doubts these people really are one of the lost tribes, but what the heck, they believe it and apparently convinced the honcho rabbis.”
A very Zionist answer, and an opinion I share as an Israeli.
They very well may be “converts” to Judaism (and they all are undergoing Orthodox conversion to Judaism), but a convert is no less a Jewish person than someone who is Jewish by birth. Indeed, perhaps more so, as they take on the obligations of the Law voluntarily.
To paraphrase BenGurian, “anyone with enough chutzpah to call themselves a Jew in this world that hates them is a Jew.”
One of those comments that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Very, very, true.