The Fradulent Claim of Palestine

Candor requires a straightforward recognition that 2007 won’t see the Palestinians realizing their cherished dream of re-establishing their beautiful, noble, once flourishing homeland since that homeland never existed as a nation state and most certainly never flourished. No, they do not qualify a “stateless nation” like the Scots, since they are not a nation at all, but rather a group of 4 million Arabs in a sea of Arabs (compared to the 5 million Scots) who yearn for autonomy and self-government and international recognition. Actually, they’ve already achieved that autonomy in Gaza (from which Israel has entirely withdrawn) but use it only to elect terrorists and to fire rockets at their neighbors (more than sixty attacks in December alone). Even if the Palestinians get their own flag and UN seat (they already possess both, for all practical purposes) they may never manage to function as a stand-alone, fully independent, functioning political entity. Some form of confederation with their Arab brothers (and former rulers) in Egypt and Jordan may be necessary to make a future “Palestine” viable in any sense, but the differences between Palestinians on the one hand and Egyptians and Jordanians on the other are far less pronounced than the distinctions between Scots and English ---who nonetheless managed to confederate with conspicuous success for 300 years.