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* Erekat says Gingrich remarks "despicable"
* Ashrawi says "racist" comments show him unfit for office
* Palestinians say they number 11 mln around the world
By Tom Perry
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Palestinian leaders said on Saturday U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had invited more conflict in the Middle East by calling the Palestinians an "invented" people who want to destroy Israel.
Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official, described his comments in an interview as "despicable". Hanan Ashrawi, another top official, said Gingrich's "very racist comments" showed he was "incapable of holding public office".
"This is the lowest point of thinking anyone can reach," Erekat, a close advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters. Such comments served only to "increase the cycle of violence", he added.
Gingrich fuels more Mideast conflict-Palestinians - AlertNet
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"What is the cause of violence, war in this region? Denial, denying people their religion, their existence, and now he is denying our existence," said Erekat, for years a leading figure in peace talks aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
In an interview on Friday with the Jewish Channel, Gingrich predictably sided with Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, who are seeking a state of their own on land occupied by Israel in a 1967 war.
But the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives departed from official U.S. policy that respects the Palestinians as a people deserving of their own state based on negotiations with Israel.
"Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire" until the early 20th century, said Gingrich, who has risen to the top of Republican polls with voting to start early next year to pick a nominee to challenge Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.
#1 - Sat Dec 10, 2011 9:06 AM ESTNewt's point of view is accurate yet the same reasoning and historical fact can be applied to so-called Jewish people in Israel also. Anyone can be a Jew who believes in the teachings of Judaism. Palestinians are nationalist, or people born within the boarders of the country Palestine. So is Newt suggesting that in turn, Americans are not a people? Americans like Newt are at the bottom of a cyst-pool in search of new political leadership other than the Black President Obama. On both sides of the American two party (Or three, if you count the cloned Republicans members of the Tea Party, newly elected politicians) political system Representatives, Congressmen and women, and Senators have faciliated the fleecing of American tax payers dollars into the hands of Corporations, Big Banks, and the Wealthiest Elite of the world. Newt has purposely agitated the delicate situation in the so-called middle east to gain the backing of Jewish lobbyist and the powerful influence Zionist have in the global political arena.
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#2 - Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:20 PM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
