Sorry, David, but it looks like your “extensive reading” consists of one article by Joseph Farah, from which you lifted all the quotes. And you do know that Farah publishes World Net Daily, opposes Palestinian statehood, and supports settlement in the occupied territories…? I mean, fine, but he’s hardly an unbiased source on issues of Palestinian identity.

I’m not sure exactly what you think the quotes prove. There’s no language known as Australian either.

There’s never been a Palestinian state - obviously - but that doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as the Palestinian people. If that argument applied, the Jewish people wouldn’t have existed either from 68 C.E. to 1948.

Re “no such country as Palestine…” In 1937, Palestine was the term used by the (as most Arabs saw them) the British and Jewish colonizers. I doubt that Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi was trying to say that there was no Arab population that identified itself as belonging in that territory. Have you actually read the Peel Commission Report? Tell the truth.

And as far as Zuheir Mohsein - are you really saying that the PLO denies the existence of the Palestinian people? Don’t be silly.

If you want to read my “rational refutation,” it’s up on my blog, here.

By the way, the comment by Wagner is contemptible. It’s too bad you have to put up with drek like that on your site.

Wagner’s post makes perfect sense if you insert Arabs instead of Jews. Wagner sounds like a Muslim frustrated because he is a loser and is secretly envious of the Jews for their success. That is the real reason these nuts hate America and Israel.

anti semitism IS growing exponentially EVERYWHERE, no use in denying it

Nowadays Hitler and the SS are more popular than ever all around the world and that is a GOOD thing because the likes of Perle, Wolfowitz , Sharon show the true nature of the jew

Jew hatred IS your OWN fault , you have profited from the holocaust trip in a scandalous way. What happened 60 years ago, does NOT give the current jew any privileges. Let alone that he can do to others what happened to him. DEPORTATION, ETHNIC (or religious)CLEANSING and LAND GRABBING

the future of the jew is not a very positive one; the hatred they have sown in the middle east since the fifties will last for centuries to come. there are only six million of them in the terrorist and landstealingZIONstate (oh sorry you call that “settlements”) ,without immigration their population is not growing, while that of the surrounding people IS growing steadily. It is only a matter of time before they too have good military capabilities and the debt will be settled. Bet that jews will complain then : why o why do they hate us so much…

for thousands of years jews are hated by all kinds of different people in different parts of the world…and of course the jew is the all out innocent victim ( a role he gladly assumes to profit from)

and not his belief in being chosen above others and his attitude towards others.

Jews bring it on themselves. again and again …

ooh it is “race” that is important ….

then israelis are not to be trusted… and not the jew.

and jew hatred, antisemitism ? GET USED TO IT

it is groing EVERYWHERE !!!

In europe, in russia , in australia, and jes in the US.

why do ALL people hate (or start) to hate the Jew ( oh sorry the israelis)? well, according to the jew that is the fault of all those different people . of course he never even considers his own typical jew behaviour is the cause.

Really good post David.

Oh and that last comment was mine. I forgot to log in.

Dave, it seems to me that you and Shamess are simply speaking different languages. Your claim, as I understand it, says that there was never a distinct Palestinian identity. Shamess interprets it as denying the physical existence of Arabs in Palestine prior to the creation of Israel. These are two entirely different questions.

Oh and another quote for your collection:

[b]The resources of the country [Western Palestine] are still virgin soil and will be developed by the Jewish immigrants. One of the most amazing things until recent times was that the Palestinian used to leave his country, wandering over the high seas in every direction. His native soil could not retain a hold on him, though his ancestors had lived on it for 1,000 years. At the same time we have seen the Jews from foreign countries streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, America. The cause of causes could not escape those who had the gift of a deeper insight. They knew that the country was for its original sons, for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland. The return of these exiles to their homeland will prove materially and spiritually an experimental school for their brethren who are with them in the fields, factories, trades, and in all things connected with toil and labour.[/b]

Sharif al-Hussein Ibn Ali al-Husseini, the Hashemite king of Hedjaz and the de-facto leader of the entire Arab nation after the fall of the Ottoman empire. Published in the Mecca’s daily “Al-Qiblah”. March 23, 1918