[TheRifleman]

NO!!
There never was a Palestinian people or a nation called Palestine. The Arabs invented the term after the fact. The so-called Palestinians lived mostly in Jordan and Syria. Yasser Arafat, the leader ( now deceased) of the so-called “Palestinians,” is actually an Egyptian!


Back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper "Trouw" published an interview it had with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. This is what he had to say:


"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.


For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

[TheRifleman]

If you are so sure that "Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history", I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine: When was it founded and by whom? What were its borders? What was its capital? What were its major cities? What constituted the basis of its economy? What was its form of government? Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat? Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation? What was the language of the country of Palestine? What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine? What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date. Have they left any artifacts behind? Do you know of a library where one could find a work of Palestinian literature produced before 1967? And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur? You are lamenting the "low sinking" of "once proud" nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of? And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War? I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here. The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "Palestinian people" and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza, respectively? The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel, and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a "nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled. In fact, there is only one way to achieve piece in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel's ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning? You are absolutely correct in your understanding of the "Palestinians'" murderous motives. I am afraid however that you, along with 99% of the population of this planet have missed the beginning of WWIII (the enemy call it Jihad) quite a few years ago. The siege of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event to which the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner had so miserably failed to respond, can be very well used as the day WWIII stepped out of the pages of the Koran and into the current events. I pray the United States and Israel lead the world to victory in this war. Come to think of it, there is no choice, be you a Christian, a Jew, or even, believe it or not, a Muslim.

[TheRifleman]

The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name, but adopted and adapted from the Latin Palæstina . How can an Arab people have a western name instead of one in their own language? Because the use of the term "Palestinian" for an Arab group is only a modern political creation without any historic or ethnic grounds, and did not indicate any people before 1967. An Arab writer and journalist declared

"There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today... No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough".

- Joseph Farah, "Myths of the Middle East" -

Let us hear what other Arabs have said:

"There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it".

- Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, Syrian Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937 -

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not".

- Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian, 1946 -

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but Southern Syria".

- Representant of Saudi Arabia at the United Nations, 1956 -

Concerning the Holy Land, the chairman of the Syrian Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 stated:

"The only Arab domination since the Conquest in 635 c.e. hardly lasted, as such, 22 years".

[TheRifleman]

http://www.imninalu.net/myths-pals.htm

Myths, Hypotheses and Facts

Concerning the Origin of Peoples

The True Identity of the So-called Palestinians

[easyliving]

I am completely neutral on this issue however from what I remember it was Palestine before 1948 when the jews took it over.

[Snowball]

as always the truth is a lot more complicated and difficult
to understand, but go ahead and watch this animated
depiction of the Middle East and the Empires which ruled
over it, it's really quite good, albeit simplistic.
Only takes 2 minutes of your time.
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

[Adamho]

seems jesse jackson and arafat have alot in common. extortion and instigated conflict lead to wealth

[TheRifleman]

I am completely neutral on this issue however from what I remember it was Palestine before 1948 when the jews took it over.

No, obviously you don't remember...actually, it was a protectorate of Britian, called "The British mandate of Palestine-EI" (EI being the acronym of "Eretz Israel" - the land of Israel).

There was no sovereign state there.

[High3rEl3m3nt]

Egypt was also a protectorate of Britain. I am pretty sure Egypt existed before it became a protectorate. It is very difficult to make your arguments without understanding how the Ottoman Empire and other Empires technically controlled this region--meaning they were recognized as ruling over it, though the areas that they ruled over were very diverse and featured distinct groups of peoples. Many nations that exist today were not sovereign under the Ottoman Empire. It is also very difficult to approach a conversation concerning the origins of Arab peoples, without separating yourself from western concepts of nations and identities beforehand. For example, we can both agree that American Indian tribes existed and resided in certain regions of North America. American Indian tribes did not have formal borders. American Indian tribes identified themselves to specific regions. However, if we use a European definition of nation and identify, how would we define these people? Within a European model, there is no definition that recognizes these people as being anything, let alone a sovereign nation and rightful to the land that they resided on for countless centuries. All because it didn't fit within the European definition. Again, it is important to remember that this argument carries a historical context. Recognizing the historical context, the European model couldn't compute, or rather refused to, look at groups of people who were significantly different. The British didn't cow-tell to these people and ask them to fight the Ottoman's for nothing. We can call them Palestinians, smurfs, nuggets, hamburgers, or whatever else, but it doesn't diminish the fact that these people lived in this region for many centuries. If people live in an area for hundred of years does it all mean nothing because they didn't formally create a nation according to a European definition? So, if we continue to apply a technical European definition of what constitutes as a nation, then you might have an argument, albeit an ignorant one.

[TheRifleman]

Islam has been at war with the world since it started. In the first 125 years after Mohammad’s death it spread from Pakistan to Spain. But it wasn’t accomplished through preaching, it was done by endless war. In that short time Islam attacked the western Roman and Byzantine world over 500 times.Contrary to popular belief they didn’t preserve learning they burned 90% of all the books. Islam turned Roman north African farm land into a desert and took away the bread basket of Egypt. They crushed the Mediterranean economy through piracy all while murdering and enslaving millions. Islam was the direct cause of the North African, Anatolian and western dark ages through endless war and economic collapse. Islam is the scourge of civilization and always has been! If you don’t resist they will conquer the world and send it into another dark age.