Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh on The Wandering Who

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: A very interesting review of The Wandering Who by Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh in the current Holy Land Studies Journal. The entire review can be read on Dr. Qumsiyeh's website: http://www.qumsiyeh.org/giladatzmon/

"I see in Atzmon writings a number of memes that are seeping into the common discourse.  A meme is a persuasive idea that spreads in a population like a useful gene spreads in a population. Some of those memes include:
-The now well-established fact that Jews are not a racial group but an ideological religious belief that spread many centuries ago among people of diverse background (this meme came from studies of the Khazars and others by authors like Arthur Koestler, Kevin Alan Brooks, Shlomo Sand, and now Atzmon)
-The idea of a conflict between chauvinistic nationalism and universal humanism.
-The weird mix of religious heritage/belief with tribal notions in Jewish political discourse
-The distorted recruitment of archaeological and other studies to support the political ideology of a connection between Jews of today and Israelites of the bible
-The recruitment of the ideology of suffering as a quasi-religious belief that is no longer subject to normal historical examinations (and in fact shielded from such historical examination via laws)"

To read more: http://www.qumsiyeh.org/giladatzmon/