Money quote(s):
"Newt Gingrich hit it out of the park with his succinct assessment of the “Palestinian” cause.
One of the most incorrigible fallacies pertaining to the Middle East is the notion that the Palestinians are entitled to a state of their own. This fallacy stems from the misconception that there is a nation of ‘Palestinians’, and to the extent that such a nation exists, this name is an accurate representation of the Arabs who live in modern Israel. This artful manipulation of the geopolitical lexicon was meant to bestow upon a group of random Arabs a false sense of geographical ties to the Holy Land."
Part of the conceptual problem we Americans have springs from our Western European intellectual heritage, specifically that having to do with the Westphalian notion of the nation-state.
We would be better off, sometimes, to reflect upon our own distinctly American experiences having dealt with tribal peoples of sometimes dubious geographical provenance.
"This delusion is no trivial matter. For years, the left wing foreign policy establishment has rapturously promoted the ‘Palestinians’ as the cause célèbre of our national security interests. Instead of focusing on the real threats to our national security (such as those who, incidentally, fund the so-called Palestinians), the foreign policy establishment has singularly focused on creating a state for the most virulently anti-American people on the face of the planet. Their maniacal fixation on the Palestinians has left them devoid of solutions regarding the broader turmoil in the Middle East.
The first step in undoing this foreign policy mess is for the next president to deracinate the entire myth of a ‘Palestinian people’. Kudos to Newt Gingrich for finally telling the truth about the geopolitical cause célèbre of all the world’s imbeciles."
What complicates this perspective is that when a people of homogenous language and culture tell themselves and teach their children a national myth for multiple generations, the myth becomes the reality and the previously inchoate "Arabs" become "Palestinians."
"All students of history, barring those who attended left-wing universities, know that the origin of the term Palestine comes from the Roman Empire. When they captured Judea during the first century, the Romans renamed the Jewish kingdom ‘Palestine’ after the ancient Philistines referenced in the Bible. After the British kicked out the Ottoman Turks from Transjordan (comprised of modern-day Israel and Jordan), they renamed it the British Mandate of Palestine, once again hearkening back to its ancient etymology. Although the original Balfour Declaration called for a Jewish homeland in the entirety of this territory, 78% of it was ultimately siphoned off for the modern state of Jordan in 1946. Unsatisfied with 78% of the territory, Jordan invaded the new Jewish state of Israel in 1948 and illegally occupied half of the remaining 22% of the territory for 18 years.
In 1967, the Jordanians (not the so-called Palestinians), along with its Arab neighbors, invaded Israel once again in the hopes that they would wipe out the remaining Jewish presence. Israel won that war and kicked out the Jordanians from the land they illegally occupied, known as the West Bank. This land has nothing to do with a Palestinian people; it was illegally part of Jordan for 18 years. 80% of the so-called Palestinians are Jordanian Arabs. Hence, there already is a ‘Palestinian state’ in Jordan."
All true. But given the short 20-year generational cycle of the typical Middle Eastern family, two entire generations have grown to adulthood since 1967, passing on to their children (and grandchildren) their Palestinian nationality.
"(T)here are those who actually understand history, and intuitively reject the notion that we should invest our time and treasure into a lie."
Also true. And given the geographic fragmentation and political disfunction of the Palestinian people as they exist, there are better, closer, and more appreciative ratholes down which U.S. dollars can be poured.
"The Palestinians are the global warming climate change of geopolitical conflict. They use deceptive parlance to advance their agenda. Thankfully, Newt is speaking the truth, instead of worshiping at the altar of the pan-Islamists in the UN. Mitt Romney is accusing him of undercutting the Israelis, but Newt was wise to express the truth from the American perspective. There is no national interest for America in the creation of a state for a non-entity, irrespective of what the Israelis chose for their own interests." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)
CAA is unable to locate a distinctly American advantage for championing a Palestinian "statehood" against nominally friendly Israeli interests in the region.
(If the Israelis care to champion such, then they should bankroll it as well.)
12/10
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