... so no, modern Jewish people did not originate in Biblical Israel and Judah and ... have no link or clear history in that land other than a very tenuous, religious one.
Oh come on now, you'd have to be willfully blind, appallingly ignorant or virulently anti-semitic not to see the links between the Jewish people and the archaeological history of the territories of Israel, Judea and Samaria:
Thousands of inscriptions, stamps and seals written in Hebrew and excavated from hundreds of sites, dating back 3000 years -- names including the names of G-d from Torah: El and (HaShem); names of people and kings found in the Tanakh; prayers which are found in the Tanakh, including a seventh century BCE inscription which reads: "May HaShem bless you and keep you. May HaShem make His face shine to you and give you peace", which is the Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.
There are foreign inscriptions which attest to the existence of the people of Israel -- Egyptian references of Pharaohs Merneptah and Shosenq; Assyrian and Babylonian and Moabite references to fifteen different kings written of in the Tanakh, including Ahab and Jehu and Omri; Persian references to invasion and conquering the territory.
There are letters written from the Elephantine Jewish communities to their brethren "back home", in Hebrew, dating from the 5th century BCE.
Aramean and Moabite inscriptions referring to the House of David.
Discernable evidence of a full-functioning state-system, dating from the 10th century BCE with large building projects, a system of taxation, roads, a centralized bureaucracy, defensive walls, a standing army, border defenses, a system of writing (Hebrew), capital cities, a hierarchy of government, central city planning, standardized weights and measures.
We can trace the development of the Hebrew language over time, using many, many different inscriptions and texts.
We have a papyrus sheet which names Jerusalem, in Hebrew, and is dated from the 7th century BCE and another town listed in the Tanakh.
We have a bulla dating from the 8th century BCE which reads, "belonging to Ahaz, son of Yehotam, king of Judah". We have a royal seal of King Hezekiah and one of King Uzziah. Seals of Gemaryahu ben Shafan, Yehuchal ben Shelmayahu, and Gedaliah ben Paschur -- all mentioned in Jeremiah.
We have the Siloam inscription, the Deir Alla inscription, Har Karkom engravings, gold bells as described from the High Priest's garments. We have the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Josephus, the Arch of Titus.
Your claim that there is no connection is patently ridiculous. And its appalling that seemingly intelligent people are so hell-bent on their anti-Israel rant that they reject such obviously clear evidence.