US election 2012: Newt Gingrich says Palestinians are 'invented' people
By Jon Swaine, Washington
Newt Gingrich last night made the most drastic play for Jewish support of any Republican presidential hopeful so far, describing the Palestinians as an “invented” people.
The former House Speaker indicated that he would break with longstanding US policy that the region's territorial dispute should ultimately conclude with a two-state solution.
Accusing Barack Obama of “favouring the terrorists” in the region, Mr Gingrich, 68, said his policy would be “pretty close” to that of Benjamin Netanyahu, the hardline Israeli prime minister whose relations with the US president have been frosty.
“I see a much more tougher-minded and much more honest approach to the Middle East in a Gingrich administration,” he said in an interview with The Jewish Channel.
Mr Obama has come under intense pressure in the US since calling in May for a peace deal based on Israel's borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Describing the current peace process as “delusional,” Mr Gingrich said Mr Obama's evenhandedness towards “a civilian democracy that obeys the rule of law” and “a group of terrorists firing missiles every day” ultimately meant “favouring the terrorists”.
Emphasising that "the Jewish people have the right to a state,” he dismissed the
the notion that Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own might be legitimate.
“Remember there was no Palestine as a state,” he said. “We've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places”.
The remarks drew surprise among experts and commentators on the middle east. David Harris, the head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said Mr Gingrich's position was “far to the right” of Mr Netanyahu's own Likud party. Hussein Ibish, a Senior Fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine, said: “There was no Israel and no such thing as an 'Israeli people' before 1948”.
Earlier this week Mr Gingrich pledged to appoint John Bolton, George W. Bush's strident former ambassador to the United Nations, as Secretary of State if he were elected president. Mr Bolton has long campaigned for the US to invade Iran to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to protect Israel.
By Jon Swaine, Washington
Newt Gingrich last night made the most drastic play for Jewish support of any Republican presidential hopeful so far, describing the Palestinians as an “invented” people.
The former House Speaker indicated that he would break with longstanding US policy that the region's territorial dispute should ultimately conclude with a two-state solution.
Accusing Barack Obama of “favouring the terrorists” in the region, Mr Gingrich, 68, said his policy would be “pretty close” to that of Benjamin Netanyahu, the hardline Israeli prime minister whose relations with the US president have been frosty.
“I see a much more tougher-minded and much more honest approach to the Middle East in a Gingrich administration,” he said in an interview with The Jewish Channel.
Mr Obama has come under intense pressure in the US since calling in May for a peace deal based on Israel's borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Describing the current peace process as “delusional,” Mr Gingrich said Mr Obama's evenhandedness towards “a civilian democracy that obeys the rule of law” and “a group of terrorists firing missiles every day” ultimately meant “favouring the terrorists”.
Emphasising that "the Jewish people have the right to a state,” he dismissed the
the notion that Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own might be legitimate.
“Remember there was no Palestine as a state,” he said. “We've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places”.
The remarks drew surprise among experts and commentators on the middle east. David Harris, the head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said Mr Gingrich's position was “far to the right” of Mr Netanyahu's own Likud party. Hussein Ibish, a Senior Fellow for the American Task Force on Palestine, said: “There was no Israel and no such thing as an 'Israeli people' before 1948”.
Earlier this week Mr Gingrich pledged to appoint John Bolton, George W. Bush's strident former ambassador to the United Nations, as Secretary of State if he were elected president. Mr Bolton has long campaigned for the US to invade Iran to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to protect Israel.
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