If the Arabic-speaking Christians of the Holy Land are descended from Jews, how come the run-of-the-mill Ashkenazic Jewish genome is closer to that of the Samaritans than to the genome of the Arabic-speaking Christians of the Holy Land? Whether Ashkenazim or Sephardim, the run-of-the mill Jewish genome is also closer to that of the Samaritans than is the genome of the Muslim Arabs of the Holy Land. The Samaritan genome is the obvious experimental "control," because today the few hundred surviving Samaritans are the only fanatically endogamous population, whose ancestors never left the Holy Land. Whether Muslim or Christian, the modern Palestinians have no genetic or historical evidence to substantiate claims that they are actually the descendants of ancient Jews or any other of the distinct Peoples that inhabited the Holy Land in biblical times.
– Alan Hertz