Newt, I’m not a Middle East historian, but . . .

by David Safier

Gingrich on Palestine and Palestinians:

In an interview published on Friday, Gingrich told the Jewish cable channel: "Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman empire." He added that Palestinians were "an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs".

I'm no historian, unlike the never-wrong Newt, but I remember in 5th grade seeing a map of the Middle East with "Palestine" written where I thought Israel should be. I was raised in a very pro-Israel Jewish home, so I still remember my confusion at the time, and going home to ask my mother about it.

The map, which I saw around 1957, must have been pretty damn old not to label that piece of land Israel, but there it was.

So, if Palestine was on the map, doesn't that mean there was a Palestine as a state, post World War I? And if there was a Palestine, weren't there Palestinians, just like there are Jordanians living in Jordan and Iraqis living in Iraq?

Again, I speak out of moderate ignorance, but I'm trying to logic this out.

Here are two maps from the PBS Global Connections website, of the MidEast in 1920 and 2002. This is the text under the 1920 map:

In 1919, the British and French implemented the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and divided the Arab world into nation-states. The League of Nations recognized these borders and allotted "mandates" to the French and British to govern these states until it was determined that they were ready for independence.

True, they weren't "independent" yet, and Newt might be able to use that to quibble, but they were referred to as nation-states. For me, that's enough to say there was a Palestine and Palestinians.

Here, by the way, is what the area looked like pre-World War I during the days of the Ottoman Empire.

BIBLICAL NOTE: I'm even less a Biblical scholar than I am a historian, but isn't "Palestinian" a modern version of the word "Philistine," Newt?

Help me out here, guy. You're not doubting the truth of the Old Testament, are you? According to the OT, Goliath, a Philistine, was hanging around when King David was still a shepherd with a sling shot. Archaeological excavations have found Philistine cities in the area.

A book on Herodotus, quoted in a footnote on a Wikipedia entry on Palestine, mentions,

"It should be remembered that Syria is always regarded by Herodotus as synonymous with Assyria. What the Greeks called Palestine the Arabs call Falastin, which is the Philistines of Scripture."

Doesn't all that Biblical and Greek history give the Palestinians a bit of credibility as a people?