History lesson?

On Monday, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, was interviewed by Steve Inskeep about the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and most particularly about “the historical beginnings of Israel and the U.N.'s vision in the 1940s of Jerusalem as an international city...”

Here is the response that the Amabassador gave:

“Well, first of all, I would take issue with beginning the history lesson in 1947. Go back another 3,500 years, go back to the Bible. I'll tell you an interesting story. One of the great commentators on the Bible, his name was Rashi, and he said the reason that the Bible begins with the creation of the world is to create the chain of title from God directly to the Jewish people for the land of Israel, so that if the nations of the world say the Jewish people don't own the land of Israel, they would point to the fact that God created the world and gave it to them.”

This, to me is an absurd answer to a fair question, because it's not based on facts, but instead a religious statement, that, of course, can't be proved and is totally irrational. Since which time has the bible becomes a reliable repository of historical facts?

 The second and other point I'd like to make about Friedman's statement is that, if his reasoning holds, we Americans, ought to be concerned and start packing our bags, before we give their land back to the Amerindians, the original owners.

Some property that was theirs for 15,000 years and we just grabbed it away from them some 500 years ago!