Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has kicked off a predictable storm over his declaration that the Palestinians are an “invented” people. I’m not going to comment on the rights or wrongs of this statement. But the Palestinian reaction caught my eye.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat stated:
What is the cause of violence, war in this region? Denial, denying people their religion, their existence, and now he is denying our existence.
Indeed. How about some Palestinian denial?
- Denial of Israel’s right to exist;
- Denial of Israel as a Jewish state;
- Denial of any Jewish historical or religious connection to the land of Israel, including the denial that there ever existed a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount;
- Hamas’s Holocaust Denial
Newt Gingrich’s statements are his own and do not reflect official Israeli government policies. Erekat’s response, however, reflects much of what is wrong with the Palestinian narrative.
Saeb Erekat – talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
