The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

But Not So Peachy Over Here
“Protests Swell Across Russia”–headline, WSJ.com, Dec. 11

And if You Lose That Bid, There’s a Bridge for Sale Too
“Australian Court Rules Samsung Can Sell Galaxy”–headline, Associated Press, Dec. 9

Bottom Stories of the Day

  • “Mississippi River Traffic Was Average This Year”–headline, Associated Press, Dec. 12
  • “Farrakhan, Winfrey Land in Haiti on Separate Trips”–headline, Associated Press, Dec. 11
  • “Nativity Scene Up at Wisconsin Capitol; Atheist Group Upset”–headline, Associated Press, Dec. 12

Who’s Inventing What?
“Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said in a cable television interview that Palestininans are an ‘invented’ people with no apparent right to their own state, a rejection of a decade of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy calling for an independent Palestinian state,” Washington Post reporter Amy Gardner wrote on the paper’s website the other day.

Here’s what Gingrich said:

“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places.”

“For a variety of political reasons,” Gingrich continued, “we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and I think it’s tragic.”

Gingrich’s description of the history is accurate. Yasser Arafat himself said in 1974: “Palestine is only a small drop in the great Arab ocean. Our nation is the Arab nation extending from the Atlantic Sea to the Red Sea and beyond.” Daniel Pipes has a lengthy exposition and a shorter one.

Now, none of this is to say that the Palestinian Arabs should not have a state. But that’s the point: Gingrich said no such thing. Specifically, he did not say that they have “no apparent right to their own state.” That was Gardner’s invention.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”