MidnightCall Magazine
In this issue:
- Before the Last Flood — By Norbert Lieth
- Gaza Flotilla: Aggression or Self-Defense? — By Arno Froese
- Far East AsiaTrendsToday – Part III:Geo-prophecy or Geopolitics? — By Wilfred Hahn
News From Israel MagazineIn this issue:
- The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part 1 — By Herbert Novitsky
- ON THE HORIZON:
- Obama Honors Jewish Heritage Month
- Building an Electronic Human Brain
- ‘Iran Critics Must Get Rid of Nukes,’ Says Turkish PM
- Israel Joins Prestigious OECD Club
- Israel Accepted after Unanimous Vote
- Spy Satellite Successfully Launched
Could Taliban Be Genetically Linked to Jews?
Geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to study the link between the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India, and certain tribes of Israel who migrated across Asia thousands of years ago.
Ali is based in Haifa, where she is working in collaboration with Israel’s prestigious university the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
Some experts attribute Israel’s decision to fund the research to a theory supported by many that Afghanistan’s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans.
This is not the first time speculations of a deep-rooted connection between the two seemingly unrelated people have been raised, yet this is the first time Israel’s Foreign Ministry has offered to fund the research.
Ali has been genetically analyzing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad, which she collected earlier to confirm their Jewish origin.
In an interview with the Times of India, Dr. Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India said, “Shahnaz’s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large.”
The Pahtans in India are believed to be descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721 B.C.E.
Some descendants of these lost tribes are said to have settled in India between 1202 C.E. and 1761 C.E., Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them.
There are few Pathans left in India, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, all of whom Aafreedi approached for the academic research.
According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world.
-www.haaretz.com
14 January 2010
Many decades ago our late founder, Dr. Wim Malgo, mentioned the possibility that some of the Afgan tribes could be the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel.
We do know that the ten-tribe rebellious kingdom of Israel ceased to exist as a separate entity from Judah-Israel. The prophet Hosea targets the rebellious ten-tribe Israel: “And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel” (Hosea 1:4). This is also confirmed in verse 6: “…I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.” With this prophetic statement, the ten rebellious tribes lost their identity as part of the chosen people and became Gentiles. However, a remnant of each tribe was added to the tribe of Judah, hence they became Jews. This is documented in 2 Chronicles 11:16: “And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the LORD God of their fathers” (see also
2 Chronicles 15:9 & 34:9).
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