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Arab League condemns Gingrich's remarks on Palestinians
BBC ^ | 12 December 2011 | BBC Staff

Posted on 12/12/2011 5:22:08 AM PST by KyGeezer

The Arab League has condemned the Republican US presidential candidate, 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.

"Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman empire," he said.

"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".

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: arabs; israel
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To: SoJoCo
Except for platitudes about how we stand behind them and tossing money to them, a President Gingrich would, in effect, cut Israel lose to fend for themselves.

Or, more likely, telegraph his clear intention to abandon the stupid "Two State" position and really stand behind Israel.

21 posted on 12/12/2011 5:52:40 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
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To: KyGeezer

I´ve been posting variations of this for years, that for the appellations of the ancient Romans, there is no so-called “palestine”, nor are there any “palestinians” but for various conglomerations of predominantly islamist arabs who should rather be killed in the warfare they seek, but that Israel has decided, for whatever God forsaken reason, to put up with the utter nonsense that are these stupid, stone age...people.


22 posted on 12/12/2011 5:53:35 AM PST by onedoug (lf)
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To: SampleMan

Cheap stunt to get votes.
Yeah, so...?


23 posted on 12/12/2011 5:57:15 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: SoJoCo
Or do they pack it in and continue retaining the land populated with several million people who want them dead?

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out,
Move 'em on, head 'em out Rawhide!

Set 'em out, ride 'em in
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in....Rawhide.

(rollin rollin rollin)

24 posted on 12/12/2011 5:59:25 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
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To: SoJoCo
I honestly don’t care what the Arab League likes or dislikes, but the Israeli position for quite a few years has been based on a two state solution with Israel living within secure borders. Now along comes a Gingrich Administration saying, “Palestinians? What Palestinians?” That would tend to undercut Israel’s position and remove any part the U.S. might have been able to play in helping negotiate a solution.

You assume there is a solution, in the sense that there is a set of concessions which would forever satisfy the Muslims, while retaining Israel's existence.

I don't believe there is any such solution. The problem is not with the "Palestinians", it's with the rest of the Muslim world, and with Islam itself. Islam cannot tolerate a non-Islamic state in the middle of the Islamic region, on territory that used to be under Islamic control.

25 posted on 12/12/2011 6:00:41 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
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To: KyGeezer

Newt now has a straight road to insisting that the US build the pipeline to Canada. Better yet, he needs say that it might make more sense to actually build a refinery on the east coast instead of pushing the oil all the way down to the Gulf Coast. We would be told that this would lose him votes up north but I doubt it. Jobs beat everything right now. Perry is 100% right about that.

Before he says the things above he needs to scream drill-baby-drill over and over and over. It is the only hope to getting the US out if the ditch.

Screw the Arab/Palestinians and their asinine so-called religion. Not a penny more to any of these idiots. They have played this country as a patsy for decades. Enough!


26 posted on 12/12/2011 6:04:30 AM PST by isthisnickcool (Sharia? No thanks.)
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To: circlecity

“Please not that none of the Arabs condemning Newt has made any attempt to refute him.”

Exactly right, because they can’t. Newt spoke truthfully. So now they do what all liberals, progressives, fascist, marxists, Democrats and MSM types do: Ignore the facts and cry racism or some other canard.

Good for Newt. I may just have vote for him.


27 posted on 12/12/2011 6:04:53 AM PST by Ernie Kaputnik ((It's a mad, mad, mad world.))
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To: KyGeezer

Arab League condemns Gingrich’s remarks on Palestinians: PROOF that he is on the right track!


28 posted on 12/12/2011 6:07:46 AM PST by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: KyGeezer

Either the UN partition was legal or the UN partition was not legal. If it was legal, the Palestinian position has a problem. If it was not legal, Israel has a problem. If it was legal, the 2 state solution is the answer.

Israel has done a good job, given the situation, creating a democratic state, establishing its economic base in the face of possessing no oil whatsoever and being located in a harsh land.

The Palestinians have been less successful and have suffered the consequences of poor leadership. It’s a shame. By now, both could have been assisting their own citizens in improving their lives, there has been enough time, money and effort to the Palestinians, but it has been stolen and misappropriated and squandered.


29 posted on 12/12/2011 6:19:32 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: yldstrk
Either the UN partition was legal or the UN partition was not legal. If it was legal, the Palestinian position has a problem. If it was not legal, Israel has a problem. If it was legal, the 2 state solution is the answer.
Palestine was divided between two states: about 1/3 was to be Israel, the other 2/3 is Jordan. If the so-called Palestinians want yet another state, let them take it from Jordan.
30 posted on 12/12/2011 6:23:39 AM PST by aruanan
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To: PapaBear3625
"You assume there is a solution, in the sense that there is a set of concessions which would forever satisfy the Muslims, while retaining Israel's existence.

I don't believe there is any such solution. The problem is not with the “Palestinians”, it's with the rest of the Muslim world, and with Islam itself. Islam cannot tolerate a non-Islamic state in the middle of the Islamic region, on territory that used to be under Islamic control."

Agree. The only solution acceptable to the Arab Muslims is the destruction of Israel and the death or expulsion of all of the Jews IMO.

31 posted on 12/12/2011 6:40:41 AM PST by Truth29
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Cheap stunt to get votes. Yeah, so...?

Cheap? Likely not. That's a hard statement to walk back.

Stunt? Perhaps. Campaigning is like that.

Curious, what would you have preferred he say? Or would you have just preferred that someone else have said it?

32 posted on 12/12/2011 6:44:05 AM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: struggle

Palestinian is no more a race than hispanic, arab or muslim is a race. They are no different from the azatlan invaders or occupy whatever dip$h!ts in this country; they are illegal squatters who have no claim to anything much less nation status.


33 posted on 12/12/2011 7:06:07 AM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: KyGeezer

**** the arab league... in fact... **** the arab.

LLS


34 posted on 12/12/2011 7:11:16 AM PST by LibLieSlayer ("Americans are hungry to feel once again a sense of mission and greatness." Ronaldo Magnus)
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To: SoJoCo

> ...the Israeli position for quite a few years has been based on a two state solution with Israel living within secure borders. That [Newt’s claim about Palestinian nationality] would tend to undercut Israel’s position...<

Gingrich’s — in my opinion, substantially correct — claim doesn’t mean that Israel can’t continue negotiating or not negotiating, as it chooses, with the people who are opposing it there. The fact that those people weren’t an independent nationality previously doesn’t mean that they can’t become one. It just reduces the credibility of their demands somewhat in demanding to become one [despite their own previous rejection of the two-state agreement].

They (or the generation before them) could have become one at the time of the modern founding of Israel, but they and the Arab states around them announced that they would not accept the division of the land that had been planned. Instead they tried to destroy Israel, and settle the matter by force. They chose to go for double or nothing. Then, when they lost, in effect said, “Now let’s go back to where we were. We have a right to that land.”


35 posted on 12/12/2011 7:16:55 AM PST by GJones2 (Palestinians as a nationality)
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To: SoJoCo

I think that as inhabitants — even if not a previously established nationality — they did have some right to some of the land now controlled by Israel, and would have been entitled to form a state of their own if that was their wish. Once the Arabs chose to settle the matter by force, though, Israel was put under the necessity of strengthening itself by occupying enough land to protect itself and insure its survival (and, if it chooses to negotiate, to have something to bargain with).

The Arab countries that chose to fight should have absorbed the refugees into their societies. That has happened with refugees countless times all over the world. Are the borders of the European countries where they have always been? Of course not. Time after time the losers in wars (some of whom were to blame for them, some of whom weren’t) have lost land. There’s nothing about the “Palestinians” that gives them the right to retain the land they previously occupied after trying to destroy their neighbors.

If Israel thinks it can reach a lasting settlement with them, fine (the prospects don’t look very good, though). The mere claim that there’s a Palestinian nationality doesn’t entitle them to one. Remember too that many of these people went into the streets and cheered when they heard about 9-11. Though, through the vicissitudes of history, individuals among them have suffered injustices for which they were not responsible, as a group they don’t have much sympathy from me.


36 posted on 12/12/2011 7:20:34 AM PST by GJones2 (Palestinians as a nationality)
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To: RoosterRedux

If some muzzie hurls his shoes at Newt during a press conference, then Newt could be unstoppable.

There’s a huge anti-Islamic backlash in this country that’s just waiting to happen, and Newt could ride it to victory if he plays it right.


37 posted on 12/12/2011 7:34:48 AM PST by elcid1970 ("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")
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To: KyGeezer

Newt won my vote with this.

He’s my guy now.


38 posted on 12/12/2011 8:03:47 AM PST by PanzerDeutscheschafferhund
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA-ST8nXl4U

Totally unrelated, but humorous.


39 posted on 12/12/2011 11:15:07 AM PST by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
Or, more likely, telegraph his clear intention to abandon the stupid "Two State" position and really stand behind Israel.

As it does what?

40 posted on 12/12/2011 12:14:06 PM PST by SoJoCo
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