I was going to post this in response to an Antisemitic troll, but I feel like this a more productive use of my energy.
I know it is hard for many people to process, but yes, genetically speaking, all ethnic Jews (meaning Jews who did convert into the religion) are connected to the Middle East. Cultural, religious and archeological aspects connect us specifically to what is now modern day Israel and Palestine.
And this includes Ashkenazi Jews.
(Now, let me be clear, Ashkenazi refers to the area in which some Jews settled after being forced out of what is now I/P as well as a unique set of customs and heritage distinct from other types of Judaism. In addition there are Black, Asian, and other Ashkenazi Jews who don't fit the standard Eurocentric "white Jew" stereotype.)
There are plenty of studies/articles that show the Ashkenazi connection to the Middle East. Here are a few:
"Despite their close ties with Europe, no more than half of their DNA comes from ancient Europeans, the researchers found. Only 46% to 50% of the DNA in the 128 samples originated with the group of people who were also the ancestors of the Flemish people in the study. Those ancient people split off from the ancestors of today’s Middle Easterners more than 20,000 years ago, with a founding group of about 3,500 to 3,900 people, according to the study.
The rest of the Ashkenazi genome comes from the Middle East, the researchers reported. This founding group “fused” with the European founding group to create a population of 250 to 420 individuals. These people lived 25 to 32 generations ago, and their descendants grew at a rate of 16% to 53% per generation, the researchers calculated."
Source: https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ashkenazi-jews-dna-diseases-20140909-story.html
"This evidence pointed to a similar pattern of shared paternal ancestry of Jewish populations around the world originating in the Middle East. They concluded that the four founding types of mtDNA—likely to be of Middle Eastern origin—underwent a major overall expansion in Europe over the last thousand years."
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1336798/
"A new genetic study shows that many Arabs and Jews are closely related. More than 70% of Jewish men and half of the Arab men whose DNA was studied inherited their Y chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors who lived in the region within the last few thousand years.
Source: "https://www.science.org/content/article/jews-and-arabs-share-recent-ancestry
Applying these ideas to modern day Israel, it is really hard for the "white colonizer" narrative to stick. Not withstanding the fact that most Israeli Jews aren't even Ashkenazi, and their families came to the country from places like Ethiopia, Syria, Iran and Jordan, many of those who are Ashkenazi are indistinguishable from other Jews and even many Arabs.
Bit, wait a minute, isn't Israel a white, European, colonial project?
Nope.
(Check out my post on Jews and Whiteness:)
As I have said repeatedly this isn't about excusing anything Israel has done, is doing or will do in the future regarding its relationship with the Palestinians. Although I can very much defend and make the case that indeed the creation of Israel is one of the best examples of decolonization.
And yet not only is the Jewish act of decolonization (which yes included some deadly acts of terrorism against the British colonial powers as well as the displacement of many Arabs) denied, the narrative has been wholly turned on its head.
People really, really need Israelis (Jews) to be “White” and Palestinians to be “Brown.” But the truth is both groups consist of people with varied skin tones and, as noted above, are pretty much genetic cousins.
This is why the ongoing violence is especially heartbreaking.