Gingrich stands firm on Palestinian stance

11 Dec 2011, 3:43 pm   -   Source: AAP
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (AAP)

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (AAP)

Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich refused to back down from his controversial remarks about Palestinians being an "invented" people, saying they are "terrorists" bent on destroying the Jewish state.

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Republican White House hopeful Newt Gingrich refused to back down from his controversial remarks about Palestinians being an "invented" people, saying they are "terrorists" bent on destroying the Jewish state.

"Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes," Gingrich said during a thorny moment in the latest debate among the Republicans vying to challenge President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.
  
Gingrich, a former House speaker who has surged in public opinion polls, caused a firestorm with an interview released on Friday, in which he said, "We've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community."
  
But Gingrich did not back down on the comments when pressed during the debate.
  
"These people are terrorists. They teach terrorism in their schools," he said when moderators asked the candidates to comment on the controversy.
  
"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. It's time for somebody to say 'enough lying about the Middle East.'"
  
Rivals pounce
 
His rivals in the debate pounced.
  
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and onetime frontrunner seen as Gingrich's main rival in the nominating process that begins in three weeks, said Gingrich's description of the Palestinians was "a mistake".
  
"We stand with the Israeli people. If we disagree with them, like this president has time and time again, we don't do it in public like he's done it -- we do it in private," Romney said, referring to a series of publicized clashes between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  
"We make it clear we're going to tell the truth, but we're not going to throw incendiary words into a place which is a boiling pot when our friends, the Israelis, would say, what in the world are you doing?"
  
Representative Ron Paul slammed Gingrich's comments as "just stirring up trouble".
  
"Under the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinians didn't have a state but neither did Israel," he said. "This is how we get involved in so many messes. It fails on the side of practicing a little diplomacy."

Newt Gingrich , Palestinians

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