Gingrich has said if he wins the election he wants his secretary of state to be John Bolton.. Jesus wept


Mr Gingrich has defended his claim that the Palestinians are an "invented" people

The Arab League has condemned the Republican US presidential contender, Newt Gingrich, for calling Palestinians an "invented" people and "terrorists".
Mohammed Sobeih, who handles Palestinian affairs for the regional organisation, said the claims were racist and a cheap stunt to get votes.
Mr Gingrich made the comments in a television interview on Friday and in a candidates' debate on Saturday.
Israel's government has said the claims are a matter of internal US politics.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a right-wing coalition government, has recognised the Palestinian people.
'Vulgar, hurtful and ridiculous' Mr Gingrich, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and a former speaker of the US House of Representatives, first set out his position on the Palestinian people in an interview with the Jewish Channel.

"I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it's tragic," he added.
He also said President Barack Obama's Middle East policy was "out of touch", and the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, and Hamas, which governs Gaza, had "an enormous desire to destroy Israel".
Mr Obama has sought to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and said there should be a Palestinian state with borders based on those prevailing before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, adjusted to account for Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the US, EU and Israel.
Then in a televised debate on Saturday, Mr Gingrich defended his claim that the Palestinians were an "invented" people.
"Is what I said factually true? Yes," he said. "Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists."
Mr Gingrich later sought to clarify his position, saying he supported the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a negotiated settlement.
But the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, said Mr Gingrich's comments "constituted a totally unacceptable distortion of historical truth", and described them as "vulgar, hurtful and ridiculous".
In Israel, Mr Fayyad added, "even the most extremist settlers don't dare to speak in such a ridiculous manner".
And on Monday, Mohammed Sobeih said the Arab League believed the claims were "irresponsible and dangerous".
"If an Arab or Palestinian official said a racist comment that was one-millionth of what this US candidate said, the world would have been in continuous uproar," he said.
"If these comments were made for political gains, then this is an even bigger disaster. But it appears that this is a cheap attempt to get more votes in an election. And to get this small number of votes, this person sold America's interests by denying international law and democratic principles," Mr Sobeih added.

Link

I remember him best for being responsible for the Government shutdown in November 1995 when I was attending COMDEX/Fall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._1995_and_1996

Like this if you like Fairuz and dislike Richginge!

Sounds like Newt is attempting to garner the Pro-Israeli favor. What a dork.

The sad part is that it will work and might gain him more favor in the polls.

I heard the "invented people" several times on EF from previous/existing members.

Since when are Palestinians a nation ?

The real question, Newt, is "are Palestinians really humans or are they just animals who should live in shacks?"

A few corrections:

1. Palestinians are not animals - they are fish. They existed before mammals. some say they existed even before fish.
2. Only rich animals live in shacks. poor animals live in council houses.
3. Newts are animals.
4. Fairuz is a great Lebanese singer. The Lebanese are a nation invented by the French.
5. Most of the nations in the Arab league were invented by the British or French.

Well at least it's not Michael Bolton.

Still no one was able to define the Palestinian nation and when did it become a nation.

But don't let facts stop you from the usual Ad Hominems.

Is it indeed possible to define any nation?

Nationhood was a late 19th / early 20th century philosophy created by the main European powers. The idea being that a group of people with similiar characteristics all belong together (and can self govern). This theory only holds some truth at a very superficial level i.e. the colour of the national flag, the language that the nation speaks etc. When you scratch the surfacea little bit it's easy to pick holes in an one nations version of itself.

Personally I think we now live in a post-nation world. The fact that I was born in Ireland does not really make me Irish. Am I Irish? Do I feel irish? What is Irish? I don't have a clear answer....

And I don't really care

this is very rich, especially from somebody who belong to a nation that was invented in 1940's

And Turkey was "invented" in 1923?
p.s. the correct word is "founded" not "invented"

The Jewish nation was invented in the 1940's ?

btw - Until 1948 only the Jews called themselves "palestinians"

what exactly is your point?

Actually I have two:
1. People in glass houses should not throw stones
2. Turks are not Arabs

apart from semantics, the real issue here is whether Palestinians deserve a state for themselves or not. If a Jew from Poland can claim rights to Palestine, more so can the Arab who's ancestors "continuously" lived there for thousands of years.

1. would you care to elaborate?
2. huh?

From your response it seems that you have been schooled in Turkey.

stop moving the goalpost - When was the Palestinian nation invented ?

you may have noticed that the Iraqi, Libyan, Lebanese & Syrian nations are now busy dis-inventing themselves.