Israel or “Palestine”?

[MartyNYC]

Is the historically correct name Israel or “Palestine”? What do the historical sources say?

 

[Polishprince]

King Dave took out the champion of the Palestinians, Goliath, with a solitary stone in single combat back in the days.

The land belongs to the Israelites, not the Pals.

 

[Esdraelon]

King Dave took out the champion of the Palestinians, Goliath, with a solitary stone in single combat back in the days.

The land belongs to the Israelites, not the Pals.

Yes, but that wasn't the question. There is ZERO doubt that the descendants of Jacob (Israel) possessed the land a couple of millennia ago. The archeological record proves that easily. As for the name of the land, when the Jews had had enough of Romans and rebelled, they were besieged and a huge number of them were killed or taken captive and the Roman troops leveled everything. They even renamed the land "Syria Palestina" to remove even the memory of the Jews from the land.

 

[DGS49]

But more to the point, there is no such thing as a "Palestinian." There never was a nation called Palestine, and it is not a cognizable ethnicity...they are Arabs who happened to live in the area named, "Palestine" by the Romans - as an insult to the conquered Jews whose homeland it was.

For an analogy that Americans might entertain, imagine that the LDS decided to declare themselves an independent country ("state") in Utah, ruled by and for the Church of JC of LDS. They threw up borders, created an army, a government, the whole bit.

But in Utah there would remain people who are either non-Mormons, or Mormons who didn't go along with the declaration of nation-hood. Even if they gave themselves a name ("Utahen's") that would not create a separate ethnicity or a right to have their own state within the new nation's borders. They are just Americans who happened to live within the boundaries of the new country.

And so it is with the Palestinians. It is a made-up term having no political or ethnic significance. They are Arabs, just like other Arabs. Nothing wrong with that, but not deserving of separate treatment and certainly not deserving of a separate sovereign State within Israel's borders. There are a dozen other Arab countries where they could go if they don't like living in Israel. Same language, same culture, same predominant religion. They would be right at home. And good riddance.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

But more to the point, there is no such thing as a "Palestinian."

But a gay Egyptian terrorist said there are.