 An event was held at the University of Pennsylvania event on October 17, 2013 featuring Ian Lustick conversing with Blumenthal to discuss "Goliath".Blumenthal objected to what he saw as "Israel's attempt to engineer and maintain a Jewish, non-indigenous majority", the Jewish population he alleged having an "attraction to Europe" (The "Mizrahi", who constitute about half of Israel's Jewish population, have lived in the Middle East and North Africa since before the arrival of Islam.