Flinders Petrie initially suggested that the term "isiri" found on the stele referred to Israel, a hypothesis widely publicized at the time.
On the Merneptah Stele, the absence of two specific determinatives — one for a city-state (depicted as a circle with an "X") and another for a foreign land (depicted as a symbol resembling "three speed bumps") — suggests that "isiri" cannot be translated as Israel in the sense of a state or territory.
The mention of "isiri" may be interpreted as referring to a group or nomadic tribe in the region of Canaan, but there is no concrete evidence to connect this group definitively with Israel.
Flinders Petrie's initial interpretation linking "isiri" to Israel was widely accepted in the historical context of its discovery, but subsequent studies have pointed to a different conclusion.
Sanchoniathon tells us, after narrating all the discoveries by which the people advanced to civilization, that the Cabiri set down their records of the past by the command of the god Taaut, "and they delivered them to their successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris), the inventor of the three letters, the brother of Chua, who is called the first Phœnician."
[paragraph continues]Maya, were supplied by imitating the Maya sign for b; and it is a curious fact that while the Phœnician legends claim that Taaut invented the art of writing, yet they tell us that Taaut made records, and "delivered them to his successors and to foreigners, of whom one was Isiris (Osiris, the Egyptian god), the inventor of the three letters." Did these three letters include the d and r, which they did not receive from the Atlantean alphabet, as represented to us by the Maya alphabet?
The Cabiri set down records of the past by the command of Taaut, passing them on to foreigners, including Isiris (Osiris), the inventor of the three letters, and the first Phoenician.