"The Invention of the Jewish People" by Shlomo Sand

“Thus Israel became the first country in the world to officially recognize the Catalan nationality.”

When the professor Shlomo Sand questioned the ethnic origin of the Jews, the most reluctant critics saw an “anti-Semitic Semite”, an Israeli who hates himself and his nation, while other malicious critics took advantage of this controversy to bolster their own obtuse racial ideology. It's hard for us to understand the real origin of the “errant race“ just because is not possible to question these  “historical  dogmas”.  Sand’s travel across the Jewish history is exciting and revealing.

We have learnt through history (and maybe Hollywood) how some troubled and anguish people ran away because of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in the first century AD. We know that these fugitives became millions and populated several areas of Europe. Theodor Herzl, a visionary man, was the architect of the Zionist dream: the long- awaited return of the "Eretz Israel", the Promised Land for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, etc. Therefore, any attempt at recovering this territories and expelling its current residents might be the most exciting and fair human epic, but, what if not? What would happen if the fiercest Zionists were not descendants of the biblical race? Why did Sand get in so much troubles investigating the origins and expansion of the Semitic races through Asia, Africa and Europe? When we entered the forest of history, its thickness deprives us of the light and we tend to lose orientation.

The fall of the temple of Jerusalem was just the impetus for Jews to conquer the world not with arms but ideas. We must recognize the great labor of the Jewish proselytism which began in the first centuries of our era. It is impressive how the teachings and the beliefs were inculcated in the most diverse people: Arabs, Turks, Mongols met a new God. The birth of the Talmud gave a new dimension of the cosmogony of the Jews, new laws, new behavior and a new raison d'etre. Their creed made them stronger and braver. What does it matter if they are different from others? They would die before becoming “marranos” (Jews converted to Christianity, on several occasions against their will). Of course, this religious revolution was not focused on the love to neighbor and so, some ideological courses were more focused on a kind of bewitchment; a typical case was the Shabbetaian Movement, a religious activity based on the hope of a new Messiah capable of changing this state of things. But these movements were ephemeral, just the essential things remained, the Jewish religion was widely accepted.

 Thus, thousands of people of Arab origin adopted the new faith and diffused it. Hence many Jews who came to Spain were “Jewish” just for their religion. On the other hand, in Central Asia, Khazards adopted the new faith as an opposition to the Arab regimes they fought with. The descendants of these Khazard Jews will be the ones who immigrate to East Europe and populate this continent for the next centuries.  Now we can understand that most of the Jews from Europe and America (because of the subsequent immigration) do not have a Semitic origin, but Khazard, and curiously, these people are the ones who support the Zionist politics: the return to a land where their ancestors were never from. Here is when we can get confused:  where are the real Jews? Did they get lost forever in the Diaspora?  In most cases, they remained in Palestine. Sand denies the existence of a Jewish nation in the Old Testament, therefore, this could be a chance for the Palestinian people to preserve their territories.

Unfortunately, as we expected, this book tends to be misunderstood by the people who hypocritically advocate respect for different races and democracy and end up being more racist than a Nazi. In the worst of the cases, the fanatics of the “conspiracy theories” find fertile ground to plot their more twisted ideologies.  I recommend the reader not to fall into the trap of the hatred and resentment.   I understand Sand is not making a mockery of the Jews with his book like it was a new version of the German Magazine “Simplissimus” which delighted anti-Semites a century ago.  This is not an apology for terrorism this is not a justification for the violence provoked by the “nationalist Palestinians”. Shlomo Sand leaves the open door to debate and confrontation of ideas, if anyone wants to get involved they must search for more works of the author in order to becoming a scholar, or  simply censor Sand.

This book is not recommendable for anyone but experts in history. This is not a reason to hate the Jewish people regardless of whether or not they are Khazards, and certainly, we must respect those who are comfortable with the Zionist propaganda (Hasbara).  Sand certainly has had great success with this work, and even with Jews who respect and admire him.  Finally, I still believe that Sand begun with a big error of perception, because Mexico is the Promised Land, simply the Zionists brought the broken compass.