Israeli Conflict Becomes Major Issue In GOP Debate

DES MOINES, Iowa – Earlier this week, Newt Gingrich told an Isreali TV station the Palestinians are an "invented" people out to destroy Israel, a statement that prompted significant disagreement between the candidates in this weekend's GOP debate on whether it is better to exercise "truth" or "prudence" in the Middle East.

When asked about the comment, Gingrich was completely unapologetic for his controversial remarks.

"Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth," Gingrich insisted. "[The Palestinian power groups Fatah and Hamas] are terrorists. They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, 'If there are 13 Jews and 9 Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?' We pay for those textbooks through our aid money. It's fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, 'Enough lying about the Middle East.'"

He went on to say, "Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes. … The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story. Somebody ought to have the courage to go all the way back to the 1921 League of Nations mandate for a Jewish homeland, point out the context in which Israel came into existence, and 'Palestinian' did not become a common term until after 1977. This is a propaganda war in which our side refuses to engage. … You're not going to win in the long run if you're afraid to stand firm and stand for the truth."

Twice, moderator George Stephanopoulos hinted that such bold words would "make life more difficult for the Israelis."

"How would we know the difference?" Gingrich responded. "The Israelis are getting rocketed every day. We're not making life more difficult. The Obama administration's making life more difficult. … I feel quite confident an amazing number of Israelis found it nice to have an American tell the truth about the war they are in the middle of and the casualties they're taking and the people who surround them who say, 'You do not have the right to exist, and we want to destroy you.'"

More