Traveller Manifesto
56. Israel - Today

Israel – Today.

Mission Report by Professor William Cowen

MIT Professor of History managing the Holy Land Historical Research

Traveller Project.

To the US Senate Select Committee on Traveller Research

I have been made aware of criticism, both from academics and from members of the Select Committee associated with the proposed use of the Transporters to explore the historical origins of Israel.

This summary is to act as a guide for the Select Committee, many of whom are not Jews and may not fully understand the intricate nuances such a study can address.

This mission had bifurcated down two philosophical lines. On one hand, there are those who seek to use the mission as a propaganda exercise, to confirm a sacred right of Jews as a chosen lineage to rule over the lands that are now called Israel and Palestine. Others, myself included, believe the purpose of Traveller Israel is to seek and uncover that which is infinitely greater and more glorious; The Truth.

After all, isn’t that why we are engaged in such daring missions to research the past?

I, more than anyone, am cognizant of the controversy that faces Jewry. I willingly take the stance that we have, perhaps, left ourselves open to criticism because Zionists claim to have the divine right to the land that now encompasses both Israel and Palestine. Please note this is a position advocated by Zionists of both Christianity and Judaism and is not the official stand of Judaism as a whole. Scriptural belief regarding the house of Israel is based on the lineage of Judah as recipients of the blood of the ancient prophets, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob’s name was later changed by God to Israel. His sons were fruitful and their lineage called the house of Israel, of which one tribe, the House of Judah is, of course, the origin of the Jews.

I won’t discuss the other tribes, those often referred to as Lost. There are discussions in the Talmud as to whether the ten lost tribes will eventually be reunited with the Tribe of Judah, i.e. with the Jewish people, but this discussion can lead off-topic as we can become mired in a significant body of fictional literature and folklore.

But in discussing folklore, this brings me to a myth, but one that seems to persist and has been recently discussed as an imperative for the nation of Israel. There is a story that Ashkenazi Jews are not ethnically Jews, but descended from the Turkic Khazar Empire. This myth is often harnessed in attempts to discredit Zionism and to explain why the British, Europeans or indeed anyone of the race broadly described as Aryan are the REAL chosen people of the Bible. The theory was forwarded by Arthur Koestler’s work, The Thirteenth Tribe, where he claims that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from medieval Khazar converts to Judaism.

Despite genetic studies that indicate these claims are false, the tragic consequences of the Holocaust, and also that Judaism can accept converts, this myth persists. It is all to do with the principles of Zionism. Many religious Jews believe that “Eretz Yisrael” - the Land of Israel - was promised to the ancient Israelites by God and the right of the Jews to the land is permanent and inalienable. To generations of diaspora Jews, Jerusalem is a symbol of the Holy Land and of their return to it, as promised by God in numerous Biblical prophecies. Despite this, many Jews did not embrace Zionism before the 1930s and Zionism has been opposed by many on the grounds that an attempt to re-establish Jewish rule in Israel by human agency is blasphemous. There is also the theory that Christian Zionists are the true catalyst to modern Israel, that their belief in the final apocalypse and the pending destruction of the Jews, can only take place if the Jews gather in the land that is now known as Israel and Palestine.

So this has largely become a theological debate as to whether Jews are the chosen ones to whom the Land of Israel is promised. If one is a Zionist and believes thus, it may, for some, justify the forced removal of Palestinians from the lands that God has promised. Namely if one is of the blood of Judah, the land has been promised. It is a justification of the controversial Jewish settlements, of the brutal removal of Palestinians from their homes, of the destruction of their ancient orchards, and the murder of their people by Zionists who are sometimes freshly arrived from the USA or Europe.

But what does this mean if you are not of the blood of Judah? What does this mean if your ancestors were merely converts? Does this still make you of the blood of Judah in the literal sense? Is the land of Israel still your land? Are the highly criticised actions of the State of Israel and what could be called the more zealous factions of Jewry justified against Palestinians if it was proved that their blood was no more chosen than anyone else?

You can imagine that, without going too deeply into the arguments for and against, this topic can be a powder-keg. Arab groups such as Fatah predictably make the most of the Khazar controversy, believing that the Zionist regime and brutal Occupation Forces are descended from warlike barbarians while Palestinians are descended from peaceful pastoralists. Some even suggest that the Palestinians are the real Jehudis, the people of Jehud and the ones descended from the true ancient Israelites and would have more of a blood right to the land than those who are ejecting them.

So, the question has to be asked; is any Traveller research into the past too dangerous? Should we fear what the past can reveal?

So far we have been able to jump back 2000 years through the use of two Transporters. We have met and battled Romans, whom I can assure you have agreed not to interfere with our camp for the next month we are on location. You will have seen the evidence of the ability of our camps to defend against attack. Being there was horrific, but our team is of the highest calibre and I believe the mission, Israel Traveller, should continue as planned.

Yes, our Transporters have been copied, some would say illegally, through the efforts of our research teams in Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. But no other project has attempted what we are doing. We will Travel back in time, take teams to the time of King David, around 1000BC, and then back to the time of Abraham, father of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, which is around 2000BC.

What does that mean?

We will travel back and learn what is there. If Zionists are correct, and the lineage of most Jews can be traced to the loins of Jacob / Israel himself, there would be vindication and celebration. The faith of Jews and Christians will be proved correct.

From a historical standpoint, Israel Traveller is the most daring research mission ever conceptualised. Through the use of four Transporters we will place explorers, including myself, into the Bronze Age, into a world so ancient that most replaceings relating to the time are garnered through incomplete, dusty archaeological digs. As America and Israel boldly step into the past, we will uncover mysteries unknown for millennia.

We must not be afraid of History and the truth.

Imagine what we will learn.