Ben Smith:



Former Speaker Newt Gingrich dismissed the Palestinian bid for statehood as as the effort of an "invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community."

Gingrich also said the Palestinian Authority, which has typically represented the moderate wing of Palestinian leadership and formally accepts Israel's right to exist, is motivated by "an enormous desire to destroy Israel."

Gingrich's comments, in an interview with The Jewish Channel, edge him and his part further away from the two-state solution embraced over the last decade by presidents of both parties, and are the latest in a series of comments from Republican leaders that will set a sharply confrontational tone toward the Arab world if a Republican is elected next year.