Presidential candidate panders

Presidential candidate panders

Recent comments by Newt Gingrich have outraged Palestinians and the Palestinian-American Community after he claimed that the Palestinians are “an invented people.” He even went so far as to say that they’re all terrorists. Mr. Gingrich is smarter than that; he’s simply pandering to the most powerful foreign interest lobby in America: the Israeli lobby AIPAC.

As a Palestinian-American who just spent six months living in Palestine, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to communicate with my friends to clear the air.

I have a Collier’s atlas from 1935 that includes the country of “Palestine” on page 100, and I can trace my roots on both sides of my family for up to nine generations, all Palestinian. Invented? Perhaps. But thousands of years ago, far more recent than the present-day Israelis were invented in 1948, or the Americans in 1776.

Newt Gingrich knows full well the Palestinians, historically Canaanites, have have inhabited the land for generations. His lies and denial of our history are his best methods of politically pandering to AIPAC in order to win the GOP nomination for president. This multi-billion dollar organization has a very impressive track record of harming candidates who stand up for the human and civil rights of the Palestinians, and helping candidates who spew nonsense and lies about the Palestinians.

Not to mention, AIPAC is no friend of ours. Its former executive director could be indicted for espionage after selling U.S. military secrets to Israel.

As far as pandering to AIPAC goes, Obama is just as guilty. He verbally supported a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel, but his recent comments exhibited a complete reversal: he vowed to veto at the U.N. the Palestinian bid for independence from Israel.

Hanna Kassis, Girard