In a world where everyone gets offended by everything no matter what political ideology they subscribe to, allow Jerry Seinfeld to trigger one side of the Israel-Palestine argument with this quick-witted answer to a street interviewer after the Knicks game:
[Warning: F-bomb after Seinfeld walks away.]
Seinfeld sneaking away from that one like:
Unfortunately, a lot of people in the comments don't know their history.
WRONG.
We use the name "Palestine" because the Brits used it after they took control of the region following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire post-World War 1.
The Ottomans ruled the area for over 700 years, and they had split the area of "Palestine" into different jurisdictions, known as the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, the Vilayet of Beirut, and Eyalet of Damascus. Before the Ottomans, other Arab dynasties and the Christians who lived there before the Islamic invasions never called it "Palestine."
The reason the British renamed it "Palestine" is because the Brits were obsessed with Greco-Roman history. They defaulted to the Roman name for the province (long before Islam was a thing or Arabs were the majority in the Middle East).
The Romans called the land "Palestina" based off the Hebrew word "Pelesheth" and the Egyptian word "Peleset," which referred to the seafaring "Philistines."
(Yes, the "David and Goliath" Philistines.)
This people group sailed from Greece and Turkey during the droughts and famines of the Late Bronze Age collapse (recorded during Joseph's time in Egypt) and captured the lowland coastal area between Egypt and Israel.
The Philistines aren't related to the current Arab inhabitants at all. Modern-day "Palestinians" are just Levant Arabs who were cut off from their relatives in Jordan (also named by the British) thanks to the maps being redrawn by Europeans. The reason they haven't been allowed to reunify is because 1) the king of Jordan is a minority and he doesn't want more Arabs and 2) the "Palestinians" are a useful tool to try to destroy Israel.
But FinesseFave, the "fastest-growing streamer of 2026," left this as the caption for his video on TikTok:
🤣🤣🤣
FinesseFave encountered a bunch of celebs after the game, but he cusses through every interview so I'll not leave it here (you're welcome, kids).
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