He also believes that what Professor Herzog and others are doing is dangerous. When you undermine the historicity of the Bible and the veracity of the claim that the Bible is essentially accurate, you are basically saying that it is fiction and that we have no more right to be here than anyone else. For Jewish settlers, who base their right to occupy Palestinian land on the Bible and evidence of an early Jewish presence, Professor Herzog's findings are particularly problematic. A large audience assembled recently at the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut to debate the evidence. The Tel Aviv professor received a polite welcome, but this was the lion's den.
Some critics go further and smell a political conspiracy to discredit Israel.
The outspoken member of parliament, Tommy Lapid, dismisses Professor Herzog's theories as Jewish self-hatred. The attempt to prove that the Bible is wrong is really an attempt to prove that Zionism is wrong and Israel is wrong.