Are modern day Jews genetically linked to the Israelites of Biblical times?

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This question remains very controversial especially in light of the ongoing conflict for ownership of land in middle east.My interest though has to do with ethnicity,origin and whatare the criteria that is used to determine who is a jew. From my limited knowledge, a few issues I would like to have resolved by the learned among us is, after the destruction of the jewish temple back in about 70 ce where most if not all of the records for the then existing Jewish population were destroyed - what was used to determine the legitimacy of modern day jews to being actually descendants of these Jews. Another issue has to do with the displacement of jewish population in germany due to the persecution during world war two.Once again,the jews have been displaced by another force of destruction,this time to the tune of a over ten million and also involving destruction of records.Is it possible that the formation of the nation of Israel in 1948 to accomodate the fallout from world war two could have attracted other nationalities such as Poles and Czeckoslovakians in search of a home.Also isnt it possible that definition of Jewish has been extended to include simply those who have embraced Judaism. Even the seemingly trivial observation that the jews of the past were said to be 'olive coloured 'by several accounts raher than 'Eurocentric " as do the current claimants seems to cast doubts on their claim. Therefore can those who claim to be jews today really have a legitimate claim to being ethnic jews?Disclaimer: This discussion is in no way intended to establish a position in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict as to who has rights of land within the territory of conflict .Nor is the discourse meant to descriminate against any people .This discourse is simply meant to gain insight into the the puzzling question of who really is a jew and by what yardstick is that measured . So i am just inviting those with information to come forth and have civil discourse