August 29, 2011
Interview with Rep. Allen West

The Jerusalem Post’s Herb Keinon had a fascinating interview with Rep. Allen West of Florida. (via Israel Matzav, memeorandum)

You are meeting tomorrow with the Palestinian Authority leadership. What is your message to them?
There is one very simple question I would ask: Do you really believe you are a credible peace partner? Because I think with the reconciliation pact with Hamas, that is a very telling thing. The fact is that they are trying to back-door the process by going to the UN for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, when we don’t have a firm recognition of Israel, we don’t have the renouncing of terrorism. I would also ask, what is a Palestinian state? It is something that never existed before.And even the word Palestine.

You take it back to Palestina – which comes from Philistia – which was nothing but a declaration by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 73 AD.

This is a region, it is not anything tied to a certain group of people; it would be just the same as saying we should have an Appalachian state, separate from North Carolina. It’s those questions I’d like to ask.

Rep West’s Twitter feed is @AllenWest