The Register-Guard · Eugene, Oregon · 2 September 1982

CP-1982-007

‘Palestine’ still a knotty issue

George F. Will, Washington

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Transcribed from the clipping

“WASHINGTON — A small dam of words burst last Sunday and the wave that washed over the Arab-Israeli dispute rinsed a large rock that lies in the path of peace.

Careful words from a king and crafty words from a Palestine Liberation Organization operative revealed deep Arab disagreement even about what the word ‘Palestine’ designates… The first modern use of the word ‘Palestine’ to designate a specific territory was for the territory mandated to Britain when the Ottoman empire collapsed in 1918.

The League of Nations’ mandate designated land on both sides of the Jordan River — all that is now Israel and Jordan — as Palestine. Later, Britain separated Transjordan (now Jordan), restricting the name ‘Palestine’ to the West Bank and what is now Israel.

But remember what Hussein never forgets: the PLO charter endorsed the original, inclusive definition of Palestine… For 19 years (1948-67) Jordan controlled the West Bank that Hussein now calls ‘Palestinian soil,’ but made no move to offer it up to what Hussein now calls ‘legitimate Palestinian Arab rights.’… Hussein’s subtlety, even artistry, was on view Sunday.

In September 1970, his army killed many times more PLO members than Sharon’s army killed in Lebanon. Last Sunday, when an ABC correspondent said ‘the Palestinians’ were expelled from Jordan in 1970, Hussein deftly, almost unnoticeably rejected the equation of the PLO and ‘the Palestinians.’ He simply said: ‘Not many left Jordan in 1970.

A very few did so. . . .’ That is true. Most Palestinians are still there, in Palestine.”

Context added by this archive

The same George Will column of 2 September 1982 appears three times in this archive under three different headlines. Below it on this page, an unrelated editorial on space warfare reprinted from the Wheeling, W.Va., News-Register.

Cite this clipping

This clipping is read closely in the section below

• Even the word Palestine

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• 9 more from this paper in the full text →

More from the 1980s

• Even Israelis protest West Bank university shutdownThe Evening Sun · 11 January 1982
• Israel renews charge against PalestiniansThe Baltimore Sun · 3 March 1982
• Israelis Survive Storm Over Bedouin Baby’s DeathThe New York Times · 9 March 1982
• art review/Childhood reflectionsNewsday · 12 March 1982
• Looking the Other WayThe New York Times · 15 March 1982
• Begin will stay on despite voteStamford Advocate · 24 March 1982
• All 527 clippings from the 1980s →

In these collections

The same copy, in 2 other papers

• Even the word 'Palestine' a matter of debate(newspaper unidentified)2 September 1982CP-1982-005
• What Is ‘Palestine,’ Anyway?(newspaper unidentified)2 September 1982CP-1982-006

Most of the shorter text appears in the longer one. Found by comparing transcriptions, not by reading them side by side, so this establishes that the text overlaps and not that these papers ran the same dispatch. How this was done.