New York – Huffington Post, Sam Stein reports, Newt Gingrich’s questioning of the “authenticity” of the Palestinian people and even whether they should be classified as a group has sparked a sharp debate within the Republican Party.
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“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state – (it was) part of the Ottoman Empire,” Gingrich told the Jewish Channel last week. “I think we have an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and historically part of the Arab community and they had the chance to go many places.”
Several of his fellow candidates for the GOP presidential nomination called his comments unnecessarily provocative and ultimately unhelpful to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In foreign policy circles there has been no shortage of debate about the accuracy of the remarks and the former House Speaker’s consistency on the matter.
On Monday, a political operative who has been working on Palestine-Israel policy for the past 20 years sent The Huffington Post a picture of Gingrich, then the House minority whip, grasped the hand of longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat immediately following the September 1993 Oslo peace accords.
Full story at The Huffington Post
VIN News, also found A 1998 Reuters photo where Gingrich met Arafta In Ramallah: see below
He just shook his hand and posed for the picture. Hillary Clinton actually hugged and kissed Mrs. Arafat.
Ha, ha, ha……looks like the egg is on Gingrich’s face and the faces of those Yiddelach who want to live in a fantasy world of Zionism…..!!!
Did he use disinfectant and go to the Mikveh afterwards?
Big deal he shook his hand, it was a diplomatic handshake not. A friendly one, I believe he is very pro Israel
And all those who saw in him the new Moshiach got the donkey instead.
Wait…. Newt is a phony and a liar? Newt pretends like he’s always been Israel’s friend while he smiled and shook hands with Arafat? It’s possible that Gingrich is somehow ‘dishonest’ about his record? And every single non-partisan fact checking organization has shown Gingrich to be a fat, foul-mouthed, lying crybaby?
I’m shocked. Truly shocked. (sarcasm intended)
What’s the point? Even Yaakov bowed to Esav to TRY to make peace! At the time of this picture there was a faint hope of hope – after that time his chazer feet no longer mattered as everyone knew his pnim was sinas yisroel bli m’tzarim!
Does Gingrich love the Jews as much as President Yasser Arafat and that’s why they shake hands so strong?
Not that I’m a fan of Gingrich, but this photo was taken at the time of the Oslo peace accords, when Rabin also shook Arafat’s hand. Was Gingrich supposed to foresee the failure of the Camp David summit and the second intifada?
Donald Rumsfeld met with saddam Hussein in 1984 and 19 years later he started a war with him
He really has a big smile on his face huh?
Believe me, Mr. Historian Gingrich knew there was no Palestine before 1948 when he shook Arafat’s hand. He also knew there was no Zionist state before 1948 either!! He’s just a politician…….
is newt really that big, or was arafat small?
Newt Newt, good in the home.
The future is lost for a fool and a stone
The friend you have above
Is noone that we love
And to you Newt I say
Good slip and good day.
Just a cheap democratic stunt. Rabin also shook arafat’s (yimach shmo v’zichro) hand. Means nothing. Newt spelled his position out wonderfully and the dem’s are running scared. Bye bye (N)obama.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. One or both of his ex-wives will go public with lots more stuff once he emerges as the Republican candidate. Romney might have given Obama a run for the money. Gingrich will make Goldwater look like a “winner” before this is over. FOUR MORE YEARS OF OBAMA. Go Newt!!!
Ok. And let’s say for argument sake that hr was close with Arafat back then, he now appears to be clearly pro Israel. He’s the best we got now.
Who gives a frak, The Oslo accord and the 90’s was a different time. If Jews had no problem with Arafat why should we care about Newt.
Thanks to Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres many Jews got fooled, bribed, or pushed into the peace process. They all would have shook hands with arafat for the sake of peace, after all they all new the cost arm the arms and withdrawal to the 1948 borders. Some of the outspoken supporters was Riskin (until he found out that Efrat was on the chopping block), Shas, UTJ and the left wing parties.
Disclaimer: I never supported any land for peace deals including the Sinai.
Ribbono shel olam. Menachem Begin, A”H shook hands all around too. That means he loves them? Chazal say, hilcheta beyadua, l’olam sonay esav l’yassakov. But they also sau, kabdayhu v’shasayhu.
Begin and Newt followed chazal’s precepts (that Begin at least) certainly knew, and I think Newt knows instintively.
#13 – Newt also knew that the Jews lived in Israel with Jerusalem as its capital over 3000 years ago.
Comeon!! That’s a cheap shot. It was after the Oslo when 99.99% of the world was in the euphoria of the infamous peace… Now he learned his lesson.
Americans, and the leader of the United States of America should not bow before any royalty…to do so whould be to show we are beneath them. If in the case of the Japenese it is custom but not an act that shows we need to be subservient. The same should apply to his wife. We are not royal subjects of any country.