This kind of attitude is all too common and gives the lie to the idea that all college faculty are "left wing anti-Americans" and so forth. The idea that the name Palestine is brand new is false because of course the name goes back at least to Ancient Roman times, referring to the ancient people called Phillistines by the Greeks and Pelset by the Ancient Egyptians. The idea that there is no such thing as a Palestinian, besides being illogical when you have one standing in front of you, is stock-in-trade for apologists for the Israeli regime and their false claim that current Palestinian Arabs are descendents of people who came from other areas in recent times (disproved by DNA evidence, by the way). The idea that although not all Muslims are terrorists (oh, gee thanks), all terrorists are Muslims, is also part of a current organized campaign against Muslims. Not a month ago, three Cuban-American terrorists were sprung from jail in Panama under suspicious circumstances and were welcomed back by President Bush's creepier allies in Florida. Among other things, those people were accused of planning the bombing of the University of Panama when Cuban President Fidel Castro was going to speak there. The explosion would have killed hundreds of Palestinian students also. Not only are "not all terrorists Muslim", the US and Israel have both got dirty hands in fomenting and supporting terroirst acts, when it has suited them to do so. Unless, of course, terrorism is only terrorism when you do it to me, not when I do it to you. The idea is to condemn all terrorism as a tactic, and finally deal with the Palestine issue in terms of the reality of the situation.
School for New learning, wow!