As I mentioned in the last blog, Palestine has become a hot topic since Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called the "Palestinians" an "invented" people.
Here's a quote that sheds more light on the creation of a Palestinian people and a Palestinian state. It comes from Zuheir Mohsen, a member of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), who gave the following statement to the Dutch newspaper Trouw in March 1977:
"The Palestinian people does [sic] not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the State of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians. and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.
For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."
Another quote by the late Yasser Arafat, past chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, made in 1993, sheds more light on his goals and why he was willing to sign the Oslo "peace" accords with Israel:
"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel."