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Velikovsky being a Jew would know the Jewish perspective on the Hittites.
The Hebrews..who became the nation of Israel knew several Hittite kingdoms.
Abraham purchases a field near Hebron from Ephron the Hittite.
Joshua has encounters with the Hittites in the hill country and the north during the city wrecking thingy that historians know about but still waffle on attributing to Israel coming up out of Egypt.
King David has Hittites in his Army...one named Uriah is like his personal boby guard..or Vanguard.
The Hittites are a patchwork of tribes which unified then went to a greek style republic/confederacy.
Operating under one common Law..but responsible for their environs.
The Hebrews from way back called them the Khit-tee...Cheth..or Heth,...one of the Sons of Canaan.
But they also knew the other Hittite clans further North..near present day Turkey.
They called them the Gimmiria...we know the name as the Cimmerians.
The became your Hittites on paper..but this Hittite group was family via Noah another way..thru Japheth and His sons.
Canaan interacted with Japheths line...this is the sweeping arc from Turkey to Iran.
All family clans..yet all not getting along.
Historians record a Hittite Kingdom of 7 Languages...maybe they should call it Hittite 5 or 6...but either way..it seems the came together when they needed..but where independent and regional..and very combative..hence the attempt to unify via a code of law and a federation.
Your Turks..Syrians ..Kurds,Armenians,Persians.and Iraqi's are a good Kodak of that ancient time.
The Hebrews called them Heth..meaning Terrible...and they were.
But the Hebrews mopped up on them in Joshuas time...latter the Hittites were doing deals with David.
But that does not mean the entire swath from Turkey to Iran was doing deals...maybe just the local "Ethnic" Hittite.
Can you imagine the arguments today..if we plucked Hitties from Turkey ,Iran,Canaan.,Syria..
Bet they would go on each other just like the present day crowd do...each group Passionate that his tribe is the leader.
I suspose they do know...the Apache Indians had several tribes..but one was pre-eminent and special..the Cherikowa.
Oh well...one of the reasons there is so much fighting in the mid-east...
all family.

Velikovsky being a Jew would know the Jewish perspective on the Hittites.

Velikovsky was quite familiar with all the ancient writings, not just the Jewish ones. And I'm reasonably familiar with the Torah myself. The word "Hittite" is just a tranlsiteration from the Torah of hay-tav-yud. There is no mention of it in English literature prior to the early Bible translations (according to the OED). There are many tribes mentioned in the Torah, e.g. the Amalekites. The fact that the Hittite of the Torah has become associated with the Hittites of ancient history proves nothing.

ML/NJ