Newt Gingrich, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Liberals, the Palestinians, and people trafficking in political correctness have been going bonkers over Newt describing the Palestinians as an invented people.  I love it.

There are several ways to look at this remark.  Historically, it is of course valid.  Palestine was an area whose name was given to it by the Romans.  It was a corner of the Ottoman empire.  At the time of the creation of the State of Israel, it was a simply a land mass over which Jordan and Egypt laid claim.  There was no Palestinian entity to challenge the claims of the Jordanians or the Egyptians.  Indeed, Arabs living in Palestine supported the claims of the Jordanians and the Egyptians.   In short, Palestinians, as a political entity, were entirely absent and had to be subsequently invented.

Nevertheless, invented or not, the claims of the Arabs on the west bank of the Jordan River, and the Arabs in Gaza, now referring to themselves as "Palestinians," have been legitimized through various agreements by the UN and through negotiations with Israel.  Boundaries for the Palestinians have not yet been finalized.  Governmental institutions are still in a primitive stage of development.  Nevertheless, the right of these people to govern themselves is unquestioned.  Indeed, they might have had a state half a century ago, if they had not placed the destruction of Israel ahead of their desire for statehood.  And, whether one agrees, or not, with whether the Palestinians were a invented people, no one questions their right to self determination.

What clearly troubles the "Palestinians" is that their narrative has been challenged.  In this narrative, the Jews were interlopers, they were a foreign colony planted on Arab soil by Europeans.  In this narrative,  Israel's claim to legitimacy is entirely lacking in validity.  Indeed, it is their narrative that has kept Arabs from joining with Jews in a true and proper peace.  And, now, out of the blue, you have a contender for the American presidency, saying the Arab position is nonsense.  Newt's statement says, in so many words, that the claims of the Palestinians are no more legitimate than that of the Israelis.  And, I say, thank you Newt for setting matters straight.  Maybe now the Arabs will understand that their efforts to delegitimize Israel simply won't fly and that the time has come for them to make peace with the Jews.