MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Although it is unfortunate that the heat Gingrich received has caused him to take a step back by voicing ‘support’ for the establishment of a Palestinian state, I am pleasantly surprised that Gingrich spoke the truth in this regard.  The flip side of the coin, of course, is that truth is a much hated thing in ‘Palestinian culture‘ …

“Newt Gingrich declared in an interview that Palestinians are an ‘invented’ people, a statement that drew outrage Saturday from top Palestinian officials.

Gingrich’s campaign, while standing by the statement, afterward clarified that the former House speaker still supports the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The front-running Republican presidential candidate made the comments in an interview with The Jewish Channel. The interview marks some of the toughest language to date any candidate has used to describe the Middle East peace process. It also comes after Gingrich pledged at a forum earlier in the week that if elected, he would name John Bolton — a hawkish, pro-Israel former U.N. ambassador who served in the George W. Bush administration — as his secretary of state.

In the interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich likened himself to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he praised for his “tough-minded realism” about Israel’s security.

He said the Jewish people have the right to a state, but stopped short of declaring the same for the Palestinians.

‘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,’ Gingrich said. ‘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 I think it’s tragic.'” Read more.

Flashback: Gaza and the West Bank: 31 Opportunities for Statehood Squandered in Favor of Genocide – “There is an eerie déjà vu about an unmistakable and oft-repeated process in the Arab–Israel conflict. The process started in 1937 and has repeated itself with minor variations many times over the subsequent 74 years. The process is as follows: Arabs go to war with Israel, promising Israel’s destruction and the annihilation of its Jews. Israel wins the war and offers peace. Arab leaders reject Israel’s peace offer, renew their promises of destruction and annihilation; and after a while they go to war again, and lose again, and Israel again offers peace. Repeat this process 31 times and you have the history of the Arab-Israel conflict in a nutshell.” Read more.

Flashback: PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein (1977): ‘The Palestinian people does not exist’ – “Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here’s what he said: ‘The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.'” Read more.