Recognizing "Palestine"
Or any other country...
Like if you want using the keys below; only I can see who you are.
This is a riff on the Johnathan Feldstein article by the same name in Townhall in May 2024.
The first time anyone used the term Palestine was in the Second Century AD, to subjugate and embarrass its indigenous Jewish people after their revolt to expel Rome from what was then called Judea. The term Judea capta, which the Romans embossed on their coins and architecture, documents Rome’s conquest. For centuries afterwards, the region saw several conquerors, but from the 16th Century onward, Palestine was a territory in the Ottoman Empire that comprised what is now Jordan, Israel, the Gaza Strip (annexed to Egypt in 1908), and the West Bank of the River Jordan. Under a League of Nations mandate, the region became Mandatory Palestine under British control in 1920. It remained under British authority until the partition of 1948 that formed Trans-Jordan, Jordan, and Israel.
Before 1948…
Palestinian currency, issued by the British, had Arabic, English, and Hebrew.
The Palestine Philharmonic was a Jewish orchestra.
All-Jewish Palestinian athletic teams competed internationally.
The Palestine Post (1933-1950) newspaper was a Jewish publication.
When the British referred to Palestinians, they were referring to the Jewish population, as there was no Palestinian Arab ethnicity recognized.
The current “state” of Palestine consists, theoretically, of the West Bank and Gaza. Until 2007, the Palestinian Authority (PA), part of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), governed both. After Israel pulled out of Gaza, the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, threw the PA out and took over governance. Over 130 states have recognized what is called the State of Palestine, or “Historical Palestine,” most recently Ireland, Norway, and Spain. The State of Palestine has observer (non-voting) status at the United Nations.
One must ask:
If Palestine was ever a state, who was its first leader?
What is its currency?
How does the PA govern a territory that is not under its control, namely Gaza?
A conundrum…
While these questions may be rhetorical, they raise a question: what makes a state? There have been many short-lived states with and without recognition over the centuries, including:
Sultanate of Zanzibar: 1964.
Vermont Republic: 1777-1791.
California Republic: 1847.
Texas Republic: 1836-1846.
Biafra: 1967-1970.
Saskatchewan: March-May 1885.
Confederate States of America: 1861-1865.
Each of these ended because of various reasons, but most were not supposed to last long. Few lasted long enough to be recognized by any other states, but powerful neighbors recognized some, like the US recognized Texas, until she became a state. The US did not recognize the Confederacy, however, and neither did anyone else. Biafra fought a war against Nigeria, and lost, but several states recognized the independent republic during its brief existence, including Israel. That did not prevent its destruction.
So…what makes a “state?”
Declaring a state to exist requires several things beyond recognition. A willingness to cooperate with neighbors over defined borders is good to have if the state is to be accepted by other states. However, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that governs today’s Palestine, along with Hamas in Gaza, dedicates itself to eradicating Israel, not promoting coexistence or policing borders. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is their anthem, calling for the destruction of Judaism and of all things not Muslim. Ethnic identity is nice (and common) for stable states, but not essential. Today’s self-described Palestinians are a mix of indigenous Arabs and descendants of immigrants from the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, and Syria.
So where did this Palestine come from?
The Palestinian National Council, formed by the Arab League, met in Cairo on 28 May 1964, and announced the creation of the PLO. Thus, Palestine existed by a declaration, without actual borders, nearly a generation after Israel. The Khartoum Resolution of 1 September 1967 between the leading “Arab” (read Muslim) states was famous for the Three Noes: No peace, no recognition, and no negotiation with Israel, amounting to a denial of Israel’s right to exist. In the 1993 Oslo Accords, PLO leader Yasser Arafat publicly recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced terrorism and other acts of violence against Israel. The PLO continued to engage in anti-Israel terrorism, and in October 2018, suspended the pretense and doubled down on the funding of terrorism.
This is the Palestine the world should recognize.
Several million people identify as Palestinians at this writing, a reality that will not change. But recognizing a State of Palestine that will not tolerate Israel as a neighbor is not a solution. This so-called Palestine MUST choose to live in peace with Israel, renounce and stop inciting terror, so they can live prosperously.
The US elections of 2024 should be instructive.
Not because Donald Trump won, but because of how Kamala Harris lost. You don’t win elections/popularity contests by insulting, belittling, and otherwise denigrating those you want to support you/be your friends. Palestinians and their supporters have a tendency to scream defiance at those who criticize them and those who do not believe Zionists/Jews should all die. No state could exist dedicated to the destruction of its neighbors: even North Korea sees that. Palestine, to be a state, has to negotiate and aspire to peace, not pursue an endless (truly) genocidal war.
The double standard over Palestine is profound.
In calling for an impractical “two state solution,” nobody is demanding this Palestine be democratic because that won’t happen as long as the PA/PLO are in charge. West Bank “Palestine” is an anti-democratic kleptocracy that has not held even a fake election in nearly two decades. The last time they had an election {in Gaza), Hamas became the parliamentary majority. The vast majority of Palestinians support the genocidal Islamist Hamas, according to their own polls, the same Hamas that slaughtered PLO leaders in Gaza, and held all Gazans hostage until Israel invaded in 2023.
If the world recognizes the State of Palestine now…
It’s high time the world holds this nebulous Palestine to the same standards of accountability as it does any other state. If the International Criminal Court claims Israel is committing acts of war and genocide, it should also put also Palestine’s leaders on trial, both individually and as a nation.
If the world does not treat Palestine as any other state…is it really a state?
Steele’s Battalion: The Great War Diaries
Steele’s Battalion is a story on a story—another narrative experiment. While a 1990s scholar transcribes a soldier’s diaries from the 1910s, he enters a world he could only have imagined before, a world of noise and smoke and cotillions and chaperones and gas and death.
Coming Up…
Historical Ignorance
How Not to Teach History
And Finally...
On 15 March:
1781: The battle of Guilford Court House, Virgina takes place, resulting in a British victory. While Corvallis’ redcoats “won,” it cost them over a quarter of their force while outnumbered by their enemies nearly 3-to-1. This pyrrhic victory ended British recruiting in the southern colonies and drove them to retreat into Virginia. This led to the siege at Yorktown that would end in an American victory.
1917: At Petrograd, Chelyabinsk, Russia, Nicholas II abdicates as Tsar of all the Russias. Because Nicolas also renounced his son’s right to the throne, the Romanov dynasty in Russia ended. Having ruled since 1613, the House of Romanov had been one of the longest reginal lines in Europe. The royal family would survive another sixteen months, executed in July 1918.
And today is NATIONAL EVERYTHING YOU THINK IS WRONG DAY. Interpret this in one of two ways: either refrain from making any decisions, or acknowledge that you’re not always right. Take your pick.
Best explanation I've seen of a nearly impossible to explain situation.