Of course Newt Gingrich is 100% correct. So who actually owns the "Palestinian" brand? The answer may resolve the Middle East crisis more effectively than war, and certainly better than a forced 4 party Road Map.
Before 1948, Palestine was a singular idea which represented the hopes and dreams of the Jewish people for their own state. Palestine was the word used by secular Jews like Theodore Herzl and David Ben-Gurion, because "Israel" was simply too Jewish. Even religious Jews used Palestine occasionally, so as not to confuse the biblical term for the Jewish people--"Israel," with the future name for a Jewish state.
Tracing the history of the term proves that it existed well before Islam or any modern Arab nation. Palestine always meant the Jewish state of Israel, and Palestinians were overwhelmingly Jewish Zionists who lived and worked in this emerging Jewish nation. Only a pandering, unprincipled secretary of state like Hilary Clinton can believe that "the truth is not helpful."
This Palestinian brand was the exclusive property of Jews. A brand is a singular idea or concept created for the minds of people, and owned by a company, a group or a community/nation. Ketchup, Vaseline, Kleenex, Cadillac and Las Vegas are all great brands whose owners carefully watch and protect them.
One can scour thousands of Arab books and newspapers written before 1964 and you will find no mention of an Arab/Muslim Palestinian state, or a reference to Arabs as Palestinians. In fact, it was the Jews who developed and built the Palestinian brand when they fled the Romans as Judean Jewish refugees almost 2000 years ago.
Fast forward to 1964, when a brilliant marketing/advertising terrorist named Yasser Arafat arrived on the scene. Although he studied civil engineering at The University of King Fuad, he immersed himself in the works of Theodore Herzl and other Zionists. People have admired Jews as brilliant businesspeople. Yet Mr. Arafat puts most Jews to shame by stealing one of the most valuable brands in history, without paying as much as a nickel for it. Imagine anyone adopting the Coca-Cola name sans permission, or heaven forbid, misusing the Nike swoosh.
Mr. Arafat puts most Jews to shame by stealing one of the most valuable brands in history, without paying as much as a nickel for it.
Arafat did not begin with terrorism. He began with a major corporate theft, even greater than Enron. And the fools in Israel never protested or fought back against the "Palestinian" Liberation Organziation in the public relations arena. Israelis were simply not sophisticated enough to comprehend the ramifications of a major word loss.
In biblical Hebrew, the word for word is davar, which means a physical thing. So Arafat, and later on Erekat and Ashrawi, et al, all understood that this was indeed where they could win the battle against Israel. This public relations/marketing nuclear weapon was more potent than any missile or weapon. Sheer genius.
Imagine building a brand and identity for 2000 years, which included a peoplehood component, a history and a land--and having it stolen from you from right under your nose--while your enemy assumes your identity and everything it stands for.
In 1948, Palestine meant a homeland for Jews.
In 2011, Palestine means an oppressed, occupied, homeless Arab refugee subgroup being subjugated by those same Jews. What a brilliant marketing ploy. And when you couple the brand with other powerful buzzwords like Apartheid, Nazi like, abuse, mistreat, persecute, conquer, etc., you create a powerful circumstance for undeserved compassion.
Madison Avenue considers branding the most important ingredient for the success of a product, service or idea. Pepsi has spent 50 years creating a look, a taste and a lifestyle that represents the beverage. For 235 years, America has built values and institutions that portray its brand. Being an American means something wonderful and is used to promote tourism worldwide. Pioneering Jews over the last 150 years have taken a wasteland of desert and sand which had been called Palestine, and transformed it into the "Miami Beach of the Middle East." Certainly there were Arabs, Christians, Armenians and other groups living there, but "Palestine" the word, the idea, the effort, the brand and the land, all truly belonged to the Jews.
From the first Zionist Congress meeting in 1897, with Herzl repeating his dream of a Jewish state called Palestine, to the days of Israel's Proclamation of Independence, which terminated the British mandate for Palestine, those two magic words, Israel and Palestine, have been used interchangeably. Of course there were Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs, just like there are Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs today.
However, unless Israel addresses this important issue by using guerilla marketing tactics and social media, it will win the physical battle, but ultimately lose the war. Israelis, the original Palestinian people, must recapture the brand and exploit its credentials.
A brand is a personality, and Israel must strive to connect the present state back to the pioneering spirit, Kibbutz builders of Palestine pre-1960.
A brand is a culture and a way of life. Hard work, tilling the land, freedom, democracy, equality for men and women, jobs, Jewish singing and dancing, new technology, family, Shabbos--that is what Palestine brings to mind.
Arab Palestine is definitely a recently "invented" concept. Newt Gingrich is right and Hilary Clinton is a fool.