There has never been a “Palestine”, but most people think there was. Indeed, the first public statement about a Palestinian state was when Yassir Arafat addressed the UN, with a pistol in his belt, in 1987. The end of the Gaza staging area for terrorist attacks will only stop once Israel takes control of Gaza and throws the terrorists out. They cannot be trusted to live there.
Palestine was a geopolitical entity mandated to Great Britain after the Treaty of Versailles and governed by them from 1920 to 1948. Part of the British Empire, but a definite territory within the region generally known as Palestine. Capital was Jerusalem. I have an old stamp collection with stamps from “Palestine” issued in the1920s. Before that it was part of the Ottoman Empire, so no never an actual sovereign state.
To be historically accurate, there was an indigenous population of people living in the mandate who prior to and after 1948 were known as “palestinians.” Western diplomats and Arab leaders alike routinely talked about the Palestinians as if they were an identifiable population— which they more or less were. The Palestinians even had a military presence in the 1948 War, known as the Arab Liberation Army. It was all a post-WWII colossal mess, and we still live with the sequelae, like it or not.
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I like to remind people that Israelis are as much Palestinians as any Arabs. That really messes with their minds at the start of a discussion.