Last week we had the manufactured "outrage" over Newt Gingrich's comment that the Palestinians did not exist as a separate people until they were invested in the 1970's. For a statement which nearly all the other candidates agreed was historically accurate, the uproar was ridiculous. Now, the usual liberal media sources are at it again. The Huffington Post has a major article which "exposes" a picture of Newt Gingrich shaking hands with Yassir Arafat in 1993. That's right, Gingrich shook hands with the head of the invested people. What could be better proof of the falsity of Gingrich's statement that the Palestinians did not exist as a separate people until they were invented in the 1970's. Wait... 1993 is two decades after 1970...That means that if the Palestinians were invented as a people in the 1970's, then they already existed in 1993....So, shaking hands with Arafat doesn't prove anything. But, but, but what about Newt SHAKING HANDS with Arafat? Yeah, he was shaking hands with a terrorist. That must show Gingrich is a bomb thrower, right? Yeah. Wait...the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO (which Arafat headed) came in 1993....So Gingrich was shaking hands with the head of an organization that had just agreed to a peace process with Israel. In fact, Arafat was visiting Washington in the follow up phase to the Oslo accords. Arafat also visited the White House. So Gingrich met with Arafat and actually shook his hand. That's not a big deal.
The long and short of it is that the HuffPo, as always, is long on outrage and short on facts. Someday, truth will beat out ideology even at the HuffPo, but that day is not today.
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