
Republican presidential hopeful former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during the Iowa Veterans Presidential Candidate Forum, Saturday Dec.10,2011.in Des Moines, Iowa. At left partially visible is Gingrich's wife, Callista.
"Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes," Gingrich said during a candidate debate in which he drew applause for asserting that it was time someone spoke the truth about the nature of Israel's struggle with the Palestinians.
"Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists," he said. "It's fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, 'Enough lying about the Middle East.'"
Gingrich's earlier remarks to a cable channel struck at the heart of Palestinian sensitivities about the righteousness of their struggle for an independent state. Applying the label "invented" to Palestinians suggests that their quest for independence is not legitimate, though Gingrich later said he indeed supports the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a settlement with Israel.













