“The appearance of the Palestinian national personality comes as an answer to Israel’s claim that Palestine is Jewish.” – King Hussein of Jordan, 1987
“Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity is there only for tactical reasons. The establishment of a Palestinian state is a new expedient to continue the fight against Zionism and for Arab unity.” – Zuheir Mohsein, 1977
“I think we’ve had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community.” – Newt Gingrich, 2011
So what’s the big fuss over the comment from Gingrich? He’s just repeating the same party line of the Arab world themselves. They understand the situation of their Palestinian brothers, but the West refuses to accept it!
Hi David,
Here are some other quotes from leading Palestinian political figures this week:
Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority: Gingrich's "extremely trivial, demeaning and ridiculous remarks" were also a "denial of history."
Saeb Erakat, top Palestinian negotiator: He called Gingrich's statements "racist" and a measure of "how really despicable things can get" in American politics.
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO's Executive Committee: Not only has Gingrich "lost touch with reality," but his remarks, which were a "cheap way to win [the] pro-Israel vote," demonstrate "ignorance and bigotry."
Dimitri Diliani, a leader of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party: The "ignorant, provocative and racist nature of Mr. Gingrich" led him to take part in this "pathetic political scheme that jeopardizes peace and stability in the region."
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/12/top-criticisms-of-gingrichs-invented-comment.html
Ittay, bless you, quoting Erekat and Ashrawi, sworn enemies of Israel, and thinking it means something! I know you always feel the need to gainsay everything anybody Rightish says in support of Israel, but really, falling for the lies and propaganda of the Left/AntiZionists/AntiSemites/whatever does not make you a liberal thinker.
And BTW my grandfather was a Palestinian. Actually, he was a Turkish Palestinian, he ran away from Eretz Yisrael in 1913 to avoid being forcibly conscripted to the Ottoman Turkish army.
I don't think that Gingrich has much of a chance to actually become President or even win the Reps nomination, and I sure don't agree with everything he has said and done in the past, but on this one, he actually got it right.
Shyrla
sovereignty
pseudo history B"h
Some other sources and to be honest I think many of them are flawed. Ever read 1984 Ittay and David, it gives you a lesson on manipulation of language and rewriting history for your own purposes.
Here is Wikipedia and there are conflicts even there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel
and if you check out the entry under Palestine you see this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine
According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of May 2006, of Israel's 7 million people, 77% were Jews, 18.5% Arabs, and 4.3% "others".[51] Among Jews, 68% were Sabras (Israeli-born), mostly second- or third-generation Israelis, and the rest are olim — 22% from Europe,the former Soviet republics, Russia, and the Americas, and 10% from Asia and Africa, including the Arab countries.[52]
Of Israel's 7 million citizens, 516,569 Jewish ones live in enclaves referred to as Israeli settlements and outposts in various lands adjacent to the state of Israel occupied by Israel during the Six Day War.[53][54][55]
According to Palestinian evaluations, The West Bank is inhabited by approximately 2.4 million Palestinians and the Gaza Strip by another 1.4 million. According to a study presented at The Sixth Herzliya Conference on The Balance of Israel's National Security[56] there are 1.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. This study was criticised by demographer Sergio DellaPergola, who estimated 3.33 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip combined at the end of 2005.[57]
According to these Israeli and Palestinian estimates, the population in Israel and the Palestinian Territories stands between 9.8 and 10.8 million.
Jordan has a population of around 6,000,000 (2007 estimate).[58][59] Long term Palestinian war refugees constitute approximately half of
this number.
The fact is that if they do not wish to live under Israeli sovereignty they then belong in Jordan and how many of the so called Palestinians have Syrian or Jordanian roots. They have NO spiritual ties to the land of Israel and they have made up a lot of rubbish about their connections to the land of Israel. One day Israel will be a proper religious state with responsible frum leaders instead of the hiloni scallywags that sit in government nowadays who do not even understand on a very deep level their connections and their heritage. Israel is very real and no amount of creation of a pseudo history that validates the Palestinian claims will work ultimately. What is needed is for all Jews to be united and frum against a very real external threat of extermination. Anti Semitism is imbued in some modern literature to the extent that personally I wonder how this happened. I have just read a book called 'Does my head look big in this?' which is an ego centric ramble by a young Muslim Australian Palestinian and the view presented of Israelis is such cr@p. Palestinians are Arabs whose ancestors lived for some time in Israel proper. They belong in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq or Iran. They do not belong in Israel if they do not accept a Jewish state. I think the agenda of the leftist Jewish lobby groups such as Peace Now etc etc is the deconstruction of Israel and the destruction of the state because these Jews are confused and dislocated from their spiritual heritage and have no understanding of who they are. They do not understand who they are and many Arab pan nationalists understand this completely and feed into it. They have projected a very negative and false perception to the world media about Israel and Jews. I actually think a lot of the leftist camp have death wishes or a suicide bent because that is the only explanation for their foolishness and their kow towing to the Arabists who are ultimately about Israel’s destruction.
Israel’s successes have been a real slap in the face for the Arabs and loss of face is something that they do not forgive. They only respect brute strength and brutality. Just look at the leaders they choose for themselves and those rulers that survive for years in the middle east.
Don’t be fooled.