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Gingrich says Palestinians are an ‘invented people’

In an interview with Steven Weiss of the Jewish Channel, picked up by Ben Smith. He also says, “I think it’s delusional to call it a peace process.” Gingrich:

“I believe that the Jewish people have the right to have a state, and I believe that the commitments that were made at a time–remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we’ve had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and 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 1940’s, and it’s tragic.”

Will this be a wedge issue between Republicans and Democrats? J Street, appalled by the Republican positions, did an email blast on Gingrich’s statement and on Jon Stewart’s riff last night on the Republican Jewish Coalition. J Street said, “[T]oday, the political pandering on Israel continued, as Newt Gingrich referred to the Palestinians as an ‘invented people’ and suggested reversing two-decades of American policy and abandoning pursuit of the two-state solution.”

Justin Elliott tweets smartly:

is there way to take Newt’s “they had a chance to go many places” bit as anything other than call for ethnic cleansing?

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Isn’t Gingrich supposed to be an historian?

He needs to read The Invention of the Jewish People by Shlomo Sand and The Myth of Nations by P. J. Geary.

so he supports a real fiction people fake right to state but not real people’s real right?

this is whats wrong with american middle east policy

All about ownership not love

Oh Gosh. Next fool and a schmuck applying for a presidential position.
It so frustrating and tiring watching their big, fake smiles, their careworn faces, studied gestures and mouths that spit the same ,old propaganda B–S –t.
This one is a new one.
Humanoid?? Invented?? Part of Israeli “Empire”, who had a chance to go to an American community and tries to become a president there??

I have been reading some of the early history of the Islam expansion. Apparently the Arabs ruled their conquered lands for only about 100 years. Over that time the native people adapted to that rule, in many cases adapted to Arabaic and converted to Islam. However, there were simply too few Arabs to replace the native populations and eventually the countries reverted to native rule.

Palestinians are Palestinians as much as Iranians are Persian, as much as Egyptians are Egyptians and so on. This is a very insidious myth that the Israelis have planted into the minds of many on the West. Useful idiot Gingerich, being the lousy historian he was, is probably just ignorant and is being manipulated by clever Israeli propaganda. I shouldn’t be too critical since I believed for a long time, without giving it much thought, that the Arab conquest resulted in the displacement of the native people.