19 January—Did you know that Palestinians are the next best thing to Philistines? Etymologically, anyway. Here’s how: The English word “Philistine” comes, through Old French, Latin, Greek, ultimately from Hebrew “Puhleestee” (פְּלִשְׁתִּי; plural “Puhleesteem,” פְּלִשְׁתִּים), meaning inhabitants of Puhleset [“uh” is unaccented, as in “the” and “duh”]. One of the cognates is Egyptian “Palusata.” The Arabic word for Palestine is “Filisteen (فلسطين).” Thus Palestinians call themselves Philistines.

Don’t worry about how the “P” became an “F” and the “uh” became an “a”; it’s all about Hebrew orthographical dots and vagaries and vicissitudes of transliteration.

Puhleset is more commonly known as Philistia; and Philistia, the land of the Philistines, is the Gaza Strip or just plain Gaza. It was the Greeks, in the fifth century BC, who called the place Palestine (Παλαιστίνη). You’ll recall that the biblical Samson saga took place there, that Israelis now are being accused of committing genocide there, and that Hamas terrorists are being billed as the victims there. (Soon Hezbollah and the Houthis will be victims of Israeli aggression. Count on it.)

It was in the seventeenth century that “philistine” came to mean “enemy” and “uncultured person,” largely thanks to typically snobbish German university students.

Philistines, Palestinians, Hebrews, and Jews have all been living in biblical country (a.k.a. the Holy Land) for millennia. And, with relatively few notable exceptions, they’ve all generally got along not too badly. It was the Christians who really screwed up the works in the Crusades, starting at the end of the eleventh century.

The Crusades were nominally intended to control the spread of Islam, regain Christian control of the Holy Land from the Muslims, conquer pagan areas, and retake formerly Christian territories that superior—i.e., better commanded and with better troops—Muslim armies had taken. There was also a pecuniary motive, to be sure, but talking about that could get you excommunicated.

Jews, as usual, were victimized by the Christians during the Crusades. Even in Europe, before the Christians got to the Holy Land. As usual. In the Holy Land, then, Jews allied with Muslims against the Christian marauding vandals. And it’s been downhill from there. If it hadn’t been for Christians, Jews could be living in harmony with Palestinians today . . .