Newt Gingrich calls the Palestinians an "invented" people who want to destroy Israel.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

***** One offensive image and one post quoting same removed. This is a very contentious subject for both sides, please stay civil in your debate. *****

The thread has morphed away from the original direction the topic had taken, which was whether or not Newt, and other politicians, were being overly influenced by the anti-Palestian lobby AIPAC.

Edited December 12, 2011 by Crusty Old Perv

[Sofiyya 1,687]

The thread has morphed away from the original direction the topic had taken, which was whether or not Newt, and other politicians, were being overly influenced by the anti-Palestian lobby AIPAC.

It's clear that he was, but his rhetoric is a bit out of date. That argument hasn't been credible since the 1960's. The rest of the front-runners are programmed to receive the AIPAC message, not to think about how much sense it makes or whether it's good for the region or for the US.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Check out his new "Middle East advisor"...

Gingrich announces National Security Advisory team

You may remember David Wurmser... the neo-con warmonger who was part of Netanyahu's "Clean Break" group and who was also part of Cheney's Office of Special Planning inside the Pentagon (Douglas Feith's two-man intelligence unit that cooked the books to try to justify a war on Iraq when the CIA said there were no grounds for it.)

Wurmser is married to Meyrav Wurser, the co-founder of MEMRI.

No mystery where Gingrich is getting his Zio propaganda...

[mawilson 2,133]

How's that Arab spring working out for ya? Israel packing the bags yet?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

How's that Arab spring working out for ya? Israel packing the bags yet?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Definitely. Soffiya needs to read a book, once in a while, like sage Mark recommends: http://www.amazon.co.../dp/0231105150/

Soffiya says Islamic terrorism doesn't exist. Doesn't exist!!!!!! That should tell us all something.

[keysjangle 145]

Gingrich in a nutshell:

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Soffiya says Islamic terrorism doesn't exist. Doesn't exist!!!!!! That should tell us all something.

Terrorism is not Islamic. Do you get paid for each time you post that term, coz it would be stupid to keep doing it if you're not. Or maybe it's a drinking game among your comrades. Just curious.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Link, please. Because evidence of this claim is nowhere to be found.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/fact-checking-the-abc-yahoo-debate-in-iowa/2011/12/11/gIQAglhRnO_blog.html

I've already reported it as false and offensive.

[Krikit 1,165]

One post removed, along with the post quoting it. As there has already been mod action in this thread, anymore issues will result in a thread ban. Thank you.

[mawilson 2,133]

How's that Arab spring working out for ya? Israel packing the bags yet?

The Arab Spring has sprung and you are not going to stuff that genie back in the bottle. The Arab people are demanding their rights to self-determination just as anyone on this earth will do, whether he is Muslim or Jewish or Christian or atheist.

Israel is simply going to have to learn a new way to deal with its neighbors - not by brutality, bullying, belligerence or bribery, but through actual diplomacy.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

The Arab Spring has sprung and you are not going to stuff that genie back in the bottle. The Arab people are demanding their rights to self-determination just as anyone on this earth will do, whether he is Muslim or Jewish or Christian or atheist.

Israel is simply going to have to learn a new way to deal with its neighbors - not by brutality, bullying, belligerence or bribery, but through actual diplomacy.

The idea horrifies you, Ma Wilson, doesn't it?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Thank you, Krikit.

WOM's link should not be overlooked as the article deals with Gingrich's false claims directly:

“These people are terrorists. They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?’ We pay for those textbooks through our aid money.

--Gingrich

During the debate, Gingrich reiterated his controversial claim the Palestinians are an “invented people,” which has been criticized in some Republican quarters. But he also raised a new charge about Palestinian textbooks, which he said the United States pays for “through our aid money.”

This funding claim is correct only in an indirect sense: The United States is the largest single-state donor for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), providing nearly $250 million in 2011. As a recent Congressional Research Service report made clear, this funding is closely scrutinized by Congress. But UNRWA underwrites the schooling of Palestinian refugees and thus provides money for textbooks

The issue of Palestinian textbooks is controversial, one the Palestinian Authority says it is addressing. We cannot immediately find evidence of the statement claimed by Gingrich, and it is not clear if he is referring to a statement in one of the newer textbooks.

There have been a number of reports by pro-Israel groups that say the textbooks in Palestinian schools reinforce hatred of Jews. But one Palestinian expert has argued that studies in English that claim to show such bias in Palestinian textbooks are “based on innuendo, exaggeration, and downright lies.”

Here is what the State Department’s human rights report said about the new Palestinian text books:

The PA Ministry of Education and Higher Education completed the revision of its primary and secondary textbooks in 2006. International academics concluded the textbooks did not incite violence against Jews, but showed imbalance, bias, and inaccuracy. Some maps in Palestinian textbooks did not depict the current political reality, showing neither Israel nor the settlements. Palestinian textbooks, used in Palestinian schools, as well as in Jerusalem municipality-administered schools in East Jerusalem, inconsistently defined the 1967 borders and failed to label areas and cities with both Arabic and Hebrew names.

But the Israeli media has reported that Israeli educational system “is hardly better than the Palestinian one when it comes to inserting political messages in textbooks.”

My comment: Having seen both Palestinian and Israeli textbooks firsthand due to having young relatives attending both systems, I agree with the assessment that both systems have issues, but the Palestinian texts are definitely falsely reported.

At the same link:

“The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story. Somebody oughta have the courage to go all the way back to the 1921 League of Nations mandate for a Jewish homeland, point out the context in which Israel came into existence, and ‘Palestinian’ did not become a common term until after 1977.”

--Gingrich

Let’s stipulate that both Israelis and Palestinians have their own historic narratives, and woe be the Fact Checker who tries to decide which narrative is right.

But Gingrich’s claim that “Palestinian” did not become a common term until 1977 is bizarre. The very League of Nations mandate that he mentions was called “The British Mandate for Palestine.” The text of the declaration mentions the word “Palestine” 45 times and “Palestinian” twice.

My comment: Gingrich is a Zionist tool, and not a very savvy one,, at that.

Edited December 13, 2011 by Sofiyya

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Most of the claims about Palestinian schoolbooks track straight back to none other than Itamar Marcos. He is the Islamophobe behind "Palestinian Media Watch" and the "Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace," his own personal anti-Palestinian hate factories. He's an illegal Israeli settler living in Efrat, West Bank.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Most of the claims about Palestinian schoolbooks track straight back to none other than Itamar Marcos. He is the Islamophobe behind "Palestinian Media Watch" and the "Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace," his own personal anti-Palestinian hate factories. He's an illegal Israeli settler living in Efrat, West Bank.

So the educationa videos and ones geared towards children that are posted out there are all the fabrication of some islamophobe? Seems more along Sofiyya's rationale that there are in fact no islamic terrorists......