> If by "near eastern" you mean Khazar, then yes.
The evidence for a Khazar origin is apparently quite weak, it's likely any Khazar link would be relatively minor if it even exists.[0] I think the Khazar's are more from the western Eurasian steppe region as opposed to near east(middle east). The original article I think was mentioning the Khazar hypothesis more as an alternative potential explanation that others have proposed.
The genetic links to the middle east are fairly strong on the paternal line.[1]
Obviously a lot of this is ongoing research of population genetics so our understanding of some of the details may change overtime but from the looks of it the paternal line ties to the middle east are strong enough that one can be fairly confident that the Ashkenazi have at minimum at least a partial middle eastern origin.
> This is the paper you linked to btw, just absolute mythical nonsense
This appears to be describing some of the tribal background that could potentially be relevant to researchers. Especially for cross referencing historical documents.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazar_hypothesis_of_Ashkenazi...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_of_Jews#Y-DNA_...