Richard,

I appreciate that clarification.

As for Israel's claim to Palestine, I hope it is not based on some scientific claim that the Torah is correct. I don't think that has ever been the case, nor could it possibly be the case if every historical event was somehow proven.

***If the statement is supported by good scholarship, then perhaps the Arabs are correct and that Judiaism developed in exil after the second century.***

I think Judaism, as we know it, developed after the first century. Whether that shows a claim to land as incorrect is entirely undecidable, at least from a scholarly/archaeological point of view.

***But I am bothered by the political implications of such a claim.***

I don't see any political implications. Whose to say that some kind of major events in Exodus didn't happen even if not exactly as it was recorded?

Warm regards, Harv