Newt Gingrich: Palestinians Are 'Invented' People

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is telling a Jewish cable channel that Palestinians are an "invented" people and that they are really Arabs who chose not to live elsewhere.

The Jewish Channel on Friday released excerpts of an interview in which the former House speaker says there was no Palestine as a state and that the residents there were part of the Ottoman Empire before the creation of the state of Israel.

Gingrich says Palestinians were historically part of the Arab community and that they had a chance to go many places.

Gingrich says the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been, quote, "delusional." He says President Barack Obama's effort to treat the Palestinians the same as the Israelis is actually, as he puts it, "favoring the terrorists."

 

 

Comments

[MacUist]

04:15 PM on 12/14/2011

I think many of us can agree that Newt is a nasty piece of work. Deep down, maybe even Newt finds Newt repugnant. Having said that, what he said IS true and I think some just don't get it and some are committed to making sure they don't. Everyone born in California can refer to themselves as "Californians". Many people who were born elsewhere but live in California also call themselves "Californians". But within that group there are Irish, Italians, Chinese, Indians and so on and on. Being "Californian" is not the same as being"Irish". What is unique about the way the claim of being "Palestinian" is promoted is that the agenda of the movement who began making the claim AFTER 1967 is that they want it to mean like being "Irish" instead like being "Californian" and THAT claim IS false, and the claim is being made in order to create the patina of a culture and history which simply does not exist. I am in favor of a "Palestinian" state, but I do not need to believe in an ancient ethnic group which has never existed to support statehood for these Arabs.

[TheFoundersWereLiberals]

11:28 AM on 12/12/2011

Republicans are an "invented people". I don't think God would have been that cruel to humanity.

[Andy Williams 1]

11:05 PM on 12/14/2011

Wow, you actually believe in a God? What will your golden calf do now?

[gdauth]

08:19 AM on 12/12/2011

Israel is an invented state.

[Sam Adamson]

10:49 AM on 12/14/2011

Which state is not "invented"?

[Andy Williams 1]

11:06 PM on 12/14/2011

And?

[soma77]

03:13 PM on 12/11/2011

Newt Gingrich is an invented person and candidate. He was invented from a character in a story that sleeps under a bridge. His mean mind is real.

[tin soldier]

12:54 PM on 12/11/2011

yep Newt has said a few things that give the libs ammunition,, but nothing like I have been to 57 states ,I have 1 mabe 2 to go

[TheFoundersWereLiberals]

11:25 AM on 12/12/2011

Everyone knows the difference between TIRED and STUPID.

[tin soldier]

11:34 AM on 12/12/2011

come on ,,if a republican would have said 57 states the libs would still be on it stop making excuses for Obama. do your reseach and make an informed decision when you vote. vote American thats all any asks

[Andy Williams 1]

11:06 PM on 12/14/2011

So Newt was tired?

[yellowdogdemocratic]

12:09 PM on 12/12/2011

Republicans mention this mistake EVERY TIME they want to counter one of their republican candidate's blunders, which happen at least once per week. If Obama is such a bumpkis you should be able to recite more than one mistaken statement in the last 4 years.

[tin soldier]

12:15 PM on 12/12/2011

ok here goes 57 states doesnt know the difference between memorial day and veterans day, navy corpman ( the P is silent) not navy corpseman. inhaler not brath analyizer , doesnt know want hand to place over his heart during the Anthem. I can go on if you want

[Andy Williams 1]

11:08 PM on 12/14/2011

Nah, we've got plenty of others, so we rotate them. At least as often as the welfare momma's go to work! If that's not enough for you, then get them breeders up and get 'em off to a real job!

I'm currently not using that mistake, I'm putting a lot of mileage on the "Austrian" language gaffe that stupid thought was so poignant!

[rgilley]

06:50 AM on 12/11/2011

The politics of personal destruction is Newt's stock and trade. This is unquestionably the most despicable politician of the last 100 years, and the fact that Teapublicans are flocking to this type of person speaks volumes about just Who the far right wing really are. "Family values" ...right , "personal responsibility" sure thats Newty eh? This man will be the worst embarrassment America has ever suffered through.

[Andy Williams 1]

11:10 PM on 12/14/2011

Hmm, I was voting for Stalin or Mao, but I guess libs have different criteria other than flat out killing off vast parts of the population. I mean, can't we even agree that Hitler was pretty bad?

[bmike]

04:30 AM on 12/11/2011

Newt trying to awake Bin Laden.

[rgilley]

06:51 AM on 12/11/2011

In demeanor and character traits there's not alot of difference between Newt and Bin laden.

[mark1966]

09:00 AM on 12/11/2011

And Newt and any another other Politician

[Andy Williams 1]

11:11 PM on 12/14/2011

Then why aren't libs supporting Newt like they did Bin Laden?

[l78lancer]

01:12 AM on 12/11/2011

Newt, check your history. Palestine dates back to the time of the ancient Egyptians and is referenced in the Bible. If you really "converted" to catholicism and picked the book up instead of making stuff up you might have run across that little fact.

Joel 3:4
Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head

[Janice Hairston]

10:11 AM on 12/11/2011

Thank you! If these bible thumpers would read the Bible, instead of using it as a symbol, they would know this. Fanned and Faved.

[l78lancer]

09:32 PM on 12/12/2011

Thx. I am one of those who actually reads it. The "thumpers" are the ones who don't. They just make a lot of noise and make up stuff because they don't know or are too lazy to find out what it actually says.

LOL!

[bluebeyond]

01:09 AM on 12/12/2011

But those weren't "Palestinians" who did not come into existence until Yasser Arafat invented them after 1967. Most "Palestinians" did not arrive in Judea and Samaria until after the 1920's, looking for jobs in the industrial and agricultural economy created by the Jewish Yishuv.

[houstonwatchdog]

12:30 AM on 12/11/2011

Great statement Newt, NOT ONE intelligent Jew will vote for you!
Stupid flattery will only get you so far.

[Lawyer13]

10:04 PM on 12/10/2011

A view from across the pond : I think Newt Gingrich a crash course in geography as soon as possible, or is the fore runner for his next conversion to orthodox Judaism so he can get their votes may be I'm too cynical, but makes you wonder.

[Sam Adamson]

10:50 AM on 12/14/2011

Would his course in geography teach him otherwise? The Palestinians are not "an invented people?"

[Lawyer13]

11:29 AM on 12/14/2011

Well said. At least someone in USA knows it, I was beginning to worry F & F

[Timothy Michal Carr]

09:19 PM on 12/10/2011

Can you believe this idiot is running for president. OMG

[Lawyer13]

10:32 PM on 12/10/2011

Seems to an outsider that you have to be an "idiot" to run for the T/Republican Party, it scares an old English to death. F & F

[Andy Williams 1]

11:15 PM on 12/14/2011

Yes, that would be the common theme with you guys and Americans striving for freedom.

[Bonnie511]

09:02 PM on 12/10/2011

Most of the candidates have been offensive in some way, on a daily basis, and to those who agree and say oh well candidates will be candidates, and it's ok, No it is not ok to continually offend someone, or a group of people. It is a scary thought that one of these people could possibly be the President of the USA, someone full of hate and bigotry towards a person, a people they do not know nor understand, all they know is that they don't act like them, think like them, look like them. If anyone of these people are elected to the Presidency, you think we have problems now, GOD HELP US ALL.

[Lawyer13]

10:07 PM on 12/10/2011

I agree with you 100% non of these candidates would even have been selected in the UK. F & F from England

[tyrdofwaitin]

08:36 PM on 12/10/2011

Ya know, we're just a year shy of the next presidential election and if I have to hear about every bit of the detritus that falls out of GOP mouths, I think I'm going to........fill in the blank, please

[Kisha Green]

09:52 PM on 12/10/2011

Hurl? I'm right there with you. Newt makes an insane comment every other day. Then Michelle Bachmann. Then Rick Perry. One clown right after the other.

[tin soldier]

12:59 PM on 12/11/2011

talk about insane comments what about Obama Biden ,waters , johnson and the list goes on and on

[mikamage]

07:51 PM on 12/10/2011

This analogy keeps being made: "Americans are invented people too!" The problem is this has nothing to do with what Newt Gingrich said.

Are you aware that the word Palestinian comes from Philistine, the actual people that were in the region when the Jews were forced into it by the Romans who were as well the enemies of the Jews?

Were you aware the region was named Palestine by the Romans to insult the Jews, forcing them to live in a state named for their enemies?

Were you aware the Arabs only migrated to the region in the 7th century?

Lastly, were you aware the Arabs who now call themselves “Palestinians” are attempting to steal the history and culture of the Philistines (and in some extreme cases, the Israelites themselves) in order to claim an ancestral right to return for the region? It is this specific issue which Newt Gingrich recognizes and adequately refutes, and he should be celebrated for having actual knowledge rather than lambasted by the ignorant too lazy to Google just what this whole “diaspora” thing is anyway…

[sarahfigueroa207]

10:45 AM on 12/11/2011

Im quite aware of the argument that the Palestinains cannot be decendents of the Philestines since the Philestines were supposedly a sea faring people origianlly from Asia-Minor and Greek localities and therfore were not Semitic and therefore not Arabic. However are you aware that the Philestines are named in Genesis 10 as the descendants of the Philistim in the line of Casluhim, son of Mizraim, ancestor of the Egyptians. At the time of the Conquest under Joshua there were a substantial presence in the land forming a Pentapolis, five city states each ruled over by a King.
Thus the Biblical account has them a settled people in South West Canaan long before the invasion of the so-called Sea Peoples at the time of Ramesses III.

[rronshouse79]

01:34 PM on 01/28/2012

The process with Goggling your information you tend to pick up some bias rather than fact. The internet isn't filled with truth but information the two don't always agree.

[fnyack]

07:28 PM on 12/10/2011

Hey Newt, my doctor is a Palestinian. I consider him to be the best doctor on the planet, what you said about Palestinians was stupid, say you are sorry and think before you speak.

[rronshouse79]

01:35 PM on 01/28/2012

There is no fun in that for Leroy Newton.