Gaza, (Pal Telegraph) - Some people think that projecting their defects onto others is a good technique for distracting others from noticing their defects. However, this does not always work. For example, when someone, who is known to be an illegitimate son, accuses someone else of being a bastard, the former reminds the whole community of how he came to life. That was the case when the Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said this week that the Palestinians are an “invented people” in an attempt to conceal the lack of originality of the Jews in Palestine. 

In fact, he raised this argument unaware of the counterproductive effect it would cause. He questioned the originality of the Palestinians in an attempt to support the originality of a state that came to existence after he did. That was how we heard his comments (in an interview with a Jewish channel) that “there was no Palestine as a state,” and that it “was part of the Ottoman Empire".

Although the point of his statements might be believed only by the semi-educated or the demi-reflective, they are truly dangerous, for they take historical facts out of their context. It is true that Palestine was not a state; it was an area in an Islamic, Arab province which used to be called Greater Syria or, in classical Arabic, Bilad Asham. Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon were part of Greater Syria; just like Kent and Yorkshire in England or Scotland, England, Wales in the United Kingdom.

However, after the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1917, (the last of a series of Islamic caliphates that followed the death of Prophet Mohammad), Greater Syria was divided into territories according to the English and French Sykes-Picot agreement, secretly reached in 1916.

According to the agreement, Britain was allocated control of Palestine, Jordan and southern Iraq, and France was allocated control of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Before long after the establishment of its Mandate over Palestine, the British government carried out its promise (conveyed to the Jewish community leader, Walter Rothschild, by its Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour on 2nd November, 1917) to assist the Jews to establish a national home in Palestine.

Before I stop talking about history, I would like to mention one more point. It has been known throughout history that Greater Syria and the Arab Peninsular was the land of the Canaanites, of whom the Arabs are descendants, since 4,000 BCE. If one looks at the Arabs’ appearance, one can immediately see that they match the nature of this land and its climate. Here is the land of origin of the Arabian horses. And by the way, there is nothing called Israelite horses for a good reason: that the prophet of God, Israel, of whom the Israelites are descendants, was an Arab subject, and therefore nothing more than his offspring could carry his name.

Now let us come back to the rest of Gingrich’s falsehoods. He said that “I think we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places”. Well, he was trying to say that the people who lived in Palestine were Arabs who expanded their existence a few tens of kilometres from the Arab peninsular or Syria. However, he did not talk about the origin of the Israelis, for if he did, he would create a comparison that would not serve his purpose. So, I will say it instead of him: the Israelis are subjects who belong to very many different countries. They came to live Palestine, the heart of the Arab region, only 64 years ago, staking Biblical claim to land. Despite this, Mr Gingrich sees them as more original than we are.

I am wondering what would have happened if the Arabs or the Muslims had staked Quranic claim to Spain. I am sure we would have been laughed out of town, although Spain was part of the Islamic Caliphate for 800 years.     

Gingrich concluded his lies by saying that “for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it's tragic.” I wish, Mr Gingrich that you would launch a war against the Palestinians just like the one you have sustained against Israel, so we could have the same privileges and enjoy impunity.     

It is crystal clear that Gingrich came up with this nonsense to gain the support of the Zionist lobby in the coming elections. This is not something new; any American president has to jump through hoops for the presidency, the assumption of which is controlled by the Zionists, just as a dog does when it tries to get a bone from the hand of its master. And a reward is not given unless the master sees a pleasing performance. However, being fatigued and out of breath through trying hard to beat other tenacious rivals and get the bone for himself, for the next four years, Gingrich’s logic failed him.

What originality are you trying to prove Mr Gingrich? In Palestine, we have falafel stalls that are older than your Jewish state. Of course falafel stalls (not antiquities) are the right things to quote here because repudiating your allegations is not worth more than this.  



by Ismail Rabah