Dr. Bill writes, "Palestine was a name for the whole region ..."
Actually, Palestine was the name for a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, which included, but was not limited to, the territories now in dispute, up to the time of that Empire's collapse and dissolution following WWI. The British picked up the name in the famous White Paper and Balfour Declaration which led to the League of Nations Mandate under which Britain ran the country as a colony up to their ignominious and spiteful departure after WWII, having, in the meantime, sawed off better than half the territory mandated to them by the League and handing it over to one of their stooges who needed a throne. That area was originally called Trans-Jordan, since shortened to Jordan, and was supposed to be a national home for the Arabs, who never had any rights whatever under the Ottoman Turks. When the Palestinian Arabs clamor for their own state, they conveniently forget that they have had one for over 50 years; it's called Jordan.
