Progressives, Palestinians, and the Truth

Karam



Progressives are not always comfortable with the truth and this is nowhere more certain than in progressive-left I-P discourse. Recently presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said the following:

Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places.

This, needless to say, has both Palestinian and progressive heads exploding all over the place.

In response Palestinian leader Salam Fayyad claimed "our people have been here since the very beginning and are determined to stay on their land until the very end."

Let's see if we cannot determine which of these two statements comes closest to anything that we might consider THE TRUTH.

Let's take Salam Fayyad first. He claims that the Palestinians have been "here" since the very beginning. Well, if that is true then the Palestinians must have a long and distinguished history that anyone can verify simply by walking into a library and reading a book on that history. One would learn about various Palestinian leaders throughout the ages, their struggles and their wars. One would learn about Palestinian contributions to the arts and the letters and the various twists and turns of Palestinian culture century upon century. One would read about Palestinian scientists and their contributions. One would learn about the great Palestinian statesmen and the great Palestinian musicians and the great Palestinian this, that, and the other.

And, yet, somehow, when I go into the library I can find no such books. How is this possible? How is it that if the Palestinians are a people with such a long and rich history, no one has ever written that history and, in fact, the Palestinians themselves do not even have a tradition of oral history in which they pass that history down generation upon generation? Are the Palestinians a secret people with a secret history?

That seems rather unlikely.

If one has any interest in that little thing which we like to call THE TRUTH one would have to conclude that the Palestinians are a people of very recent origin and that as a people they are little different from Jordanians or Syrians or the Arabs local to that area, more generally.

Now let's look again at what Gingrich said:

Remember, there was no Palestine as a state.

This is, of course, true. There has never been a state of Palestine. Ever. There is a long and rich Jewish history in the region, but no "Palestinian" history until near the end of the last century. This is not a matter of interpretation, but a matter of fact.

It was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Indeed, prior to the Ottoman defeat in World War I, the region of "Palestine" was a small part of the greater Ottoman empire. This, too, is not a matter of interpretation, but a matter of fact.

We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people...

This statement is partly true and partly false. It is certainly true that the Palestinians are Arabs who live in that region and they have been historically part of the Arab people. They consider themselves to be ethnically Arab. They speak the Arabic language and share a common religion with the great majority of other Arabs. They eat Arabic cuisine and have an Arabic culture.

Where Newt is entirely wrong is when he says that "we" invented the Palestinian people. The truth, of course, is that the Palestinian people invented the Palestinian people. All peoples are social constructs. All peoples therefore have a starting point. For the Jewish people our starting point was around 3,500 years ago. The starting point for Americans was sometime prior to the Revolution. For the Palestinians it was a quarter past last Tuesday.

The truth of the matter is that the Palestinians emerged as a people only toward the end of the 1960s and it is for this reason that Newt can say, rightly, that the Palestinians are an "invented" people. Of course they are an invented people because all peoples are "invented." It's just that the Palestinians were invented very recently and that their emergence as a people was a response in opposition to the Jewish national project. The Palestinians emerged out of the greater Arab nation for the purpose of opposing the Jews.

This is one of the differences between the Palestinian emergence as a people and the American emergence as a people. The Americans emerged as a people in conflict with the British and the Palestinians emerged as a people in conflict with the Jews. The difference is that the Americans were seeking to fulfill their national aspirations through the creation of an American state while the Palestinians were trying to prevent Jewish national aspirations by endeavoring to destroy the Jewish state.

That may be an uncomfortable fact, but it is a fact.

So the truth is that Newt is not wrong so much as he is being impolitic by speaking the truth. Virtually no one speaks the truth on this question and certainly no politicians ever would... except Newt.

Good for him!

{I like him better, already.}

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