I am surprised that the use of that term required an apology. Hereafter I will stop using it. Algemeiner reports on this apology:
Disgraced former New York congressman and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner on Saturday went up against a Jewish BuzzFeed honcho who said he sees no problem with using the term “occupied territories” when describing disputed areas under Israel’s control.
BuzzFeed editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, tweeted on Saturday, “I don’t think ‘occupied territories’ is actually a disputed term. Yikes.” Weiner, who is also Jewish, retorted, tweeting, “yeah it is. Is Gaza ‘occupied’ since Israel withdrew?”
The exchange came in response to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s controversial use of the term, and the uproar that followed, in a speech he gave Saturday.
The phrase is rejected by Israel and the Jewish state’s supporters who see it as representing the Arab position in the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict.
Who knew that Weiner was so knowledgeable.
LAS VEGAS – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie apologized to Sheldon Adelson in a meeting Saturday for stepping on a fault line in Middle East politics during a speech he gave earlier in the day, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
Invoking a 2012 trip he and his family took to Israel, Christie recalled in the speech: “I took a helicopter ride from the occupied territories across and just felt personally how extraordinary that was to understand, the military risk that Israel faces every day.”
While the story was intended to forge common cause with Adelson and the several hundred donors to the Republican Jewish Coalition to which Christie was speaking, his use of the term “occupied territories” set off murmurs in the crowd. The term refers to lands in which Palestinians live where Israel maintains a military presence, including the West Bank.
But the term is rejected by some conservative Zionists like Adelson who see it as validating Palestinian challenges over Israel’s presence. Other supporters of Israel oppose the use of the term as well.
Not long after his speech, Christie met with Adelson privately in the casino mogul’s office in the Venetian hotel and casino, which hosted the RJC meeting.
The source told POLITICO that Christie “clarified in the strongest terms possible that his remarks today were not meant to be a statement of policy.”
Instead, the source said, Christie made clear “that he misspoke when he referred to the ‘occupied territories.’ And he conveyed that he is an unwavering friend and committed supporter of Israel, and was sorry for any confusion that came across as a result of the misstatement.”
Adelson accepted Christie’s explanation, the source said.
The mini-controversy and quick apology highlight both the importance of Adelson as the reigning mega-donor in GOP politics, as well as the tricky terrain that Middle East politics can pose for American politicians courting Jewish donors and voters.
Before the meeting, Adelson ally Morton Klein, president of the hawkish Zionist Organization of America, had confronted Christie about his use of the term, telling POLITICO he explained to the New Jersey governor that “at minimum you should call it disputed territories.”
Christie was non-committal, said Klein, who concluded afterwards that the governor “either doesn’t understand the issue at all, or he’s hostile to Israel.”
Besides the comment, Christie largely impressed the crowd Saturday night with tales of his own trips to Israel.
He also criticized the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy, which the crowd distrusts deeply.
“We cannot have a world where our friends are unsure of whether we’ll be with them, and our enemies are unsure of whether we’ll be against them,” Christie said to loud applause.
Christie recounted meeting the hawkish Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an RJC favorite, and being “extraordinarily taken by his strength and resolve.”
Christie was one of three Republican governors to speak to the crowd Saturday night. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio also spoke to the crowd, offering a strong defense of Israel, too.
The three governors are considered likely contenders for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. Party stalwarts hope their attendance this weekend will help convince Adelson to support an establishment candidate in the next presidential, rather than a dark horse candidate like Newt Gingrich who he propped up with millions in 2012.
Actually, the best term is “recovered” territories.
@ the phoenix:
GO DALLAS STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ the phoenix:
BANG BANG , I SHOT MY BABY DOWN
@ honeybee:
Dear hb,
What I said, UNFORTUNATELY was a description of an existing state of affairs.
I TRULY wish that were not so… But unfortunately….. It IS so. Whether you like it or not.
Please do not shoot the messenger!!’
I do not think there is a need to provide a gazillion links to you tubes and articles that would (unfortunately) prove my point.
Don’t get me wrong.
I love ALL the Americans that I have met. Nonetheless, I am certain of the fact that they are NOT a representative slice of the american pie.
A while back I listened to rabbi kahane on YouTube where he describes the ‘average’ american, that can be met in any tavern in any of the thousands of little cities and towns that are the REAL America, and how he views THE JEW to be the alpha and the omega of ALL the troubles…
And back to my original statement, how else would you describe a people that made a colossal mistake not once (which is understandable) but TWICE????!????? (Clinton, bush, ovomit)
And when you read article after article, provided for us right here, about the perfidy and duplicity of this U. S. of A. …. I apologize for feeling overcome by a strong sense of nausea …
Fwiw, I do not think that you can really go with that statement (,insult one American insult them all.) for I DO understand who you mean by “all”.
I am only pointing out, that the “all” that you refer to , is NOT Representative of America.
the phoenix Said:
Unlike Canuck,insult one American insult them all.
the phoenix Said:
True day!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yes you do give a Dern!!!!! Rhett,Darlin
@ honeybee:
Dear, dear, dear honeybee…. (That’s a good start, I think… 😉 )
Were you to read my comment till the end, you would then see that I have specifically excluded all ip commenters from that generalization with the exception of two.
Was I mistaken, in my math? 😉
(Sorry. You DID say you do not like to be teased… My bad… BAD PHOENIX!)
http://youtu.be/PAqxWa9Rbe0
yamit82 Said:
Texans don’t care for him…. Gov. Perry wouldn’t welcome his when he visited Texas.
the phoenix Said:
Up yours Canuck!!! When is the last time a Canadian Hockey team won the Stanley Cup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CuriousAmerican Said:
A friend of mine [a refugee from NYC\ asked me what I thought of Sharon. I told her [as is said in Texas] . Sharon is an SOB with elbows, but HE IS OUR SOB WITH ELBOWS.
@ Mickey Oberman:
Try green chili,Tx always eat his word with green chili
@ the phoenix:
Phoenix, I getting old enough that I no longer waste what’s left of my time getting angered about that particular combination of ignorance and arrogance. Many people here all but drink the heavy waters of American exceptionalism, or perhaps I should better describe that as what they imagine is such exceptionalism and what that supposedly buys for them around the world. One of the reasons the owners of this empire have pumped them full of hatred against the Russian state and nation, under either state socialism or capitalism, is that they sense the Russians are the one people in the world strong enough to get away with not having to swallow their simultaneously self-serving and pious bull-shit about who should be allowed to dominate the world and for what end purposes. Sometimes I think it is not accidental that Americans play poker, where fakery is everything whereas the Russians play chess in which you either move your pieces on the board correctly or you wind up getting checkmated.
About Hilary Clinton vs any of the Republicans: I’m not certain which if any of those people in the US presidency would be more in Israel’s short-range and long-range interests. In any case, I want Israel to develop much closer relations with China, Russia and India, so as to lessen and as soon as possible terminate what I think is a misguided and dangerous dependence on this particular fading world empire.
Nor do I think what I write about these topics is even remotely treasonable. I think America reverting to its original status as the republic of Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Madison and Lincoln would be a better long-term proposition for this country than continuance of the imperialism that began taking over from and squeezing the life out of that original republic beginning in the 1890s. In any case, I served this country honorably in its armed forces in time of war, so I have no apologies to make to anybody.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ ArnoldHarris:
I will not be surprised at all if she were to win the democratic nomination and proceed to become the potus.
The incredible stupidity ignorance AND arrogance of the Americans never ceases to amaze me…
I hope it is obvious that this remark, has exceptions to it. Those that comment on this forum (ok, with the exception of two) are obviously, not included….
😉
What Governor Chris Christie said about Shomron and Yehuda matters little. The likelihood of him getting the Republican nomination for the US presidency in the 2016 US national elections are now only fractional. No politician in this country aspiring for a larger pond in which to fish ever overcomes a scandal such as he found himself in regarding closure of most of the lanes of the great bridge that feeds New Jersey commuters onto Manhattan Island and brings them home again. Did he have foreknowledge of that stupid and vengeful act? Maybe not. But enough voters will think he did, and that’s enough to damage any political career in this country.
Besides which, Governor Christie is a greatly overweight fat man, like most Americans of that age. And in his case, and with his boss-man temperament, people think he resembles any of a number of male actors who get screen roles as Mafia capos. (One of the factors that got our then-unknown Barack Hussein Obama elected president was that he looked skinny enough to slither on and off the stages where he gave his campaign speeches. As the old saying goes: “You can never be too rich or too thin”.
At this time, the key players in the GOP sweepstakes are Paul and Huckabee, both of whom are strongly pro-Israeli, and neither of whom make the kinds of mistakes that people think Christie got himself stuck with. Even so, Hilary Clinton has the edge on all possible opponents, unless she begins acting like the old woman she has become.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Wow!
I did as you suggested.
I was wrong.
A little salt and pepper and I’ll eat my words.
May I remove my last paragraph?
Mickey
I believe he said on a TV report. There was some shock, and he was criticized. It was noteworthy enough to make it to American media.
But then, you never considered Sharon your hero.
Mickey Oberman Said:
He doesn’t have a sincere bone in his fat body.
He is in the pocket of the Islamists and Muslim Brotherhood.
To come out of the cesspool of NJ politics is littler better the the Cesspool of Chicago and Illinois State politics.
There is no way one can progress successfully in those two venues without being dirty as hell.
CuriousAmerican Said:
In what context???
What happened to him shortly after he said it?????? 🙂 🙂 🙂
@ Mickey Oberman:Do a google search on Christie and Islam.
Ariel Sharon once said “occupied territories.”
Christie made a mistake. Many Jews also mistakenly use the words ‘occupied territories’.
Indeed, the use of ‘Palestinian’ when referring to Arab residents of Judea and Samaria is a terrible mistake that acknowledges the false claims of the pseudo Palestinians.
In actual fact since there never was a land called Palestine there can be no Palestinians.
But Islam is great at twisting the meanings of words to suit their agendas.
Unfortunately the western press quickly adopts those words and spreads their use world wide.
I think Christie is sincere and should be welcome as a true friend with only good and honourable intentions.
He is so unlike Obama for whom 70% +- of American Jews voted into power and voted to return him to power. They did far more harm to Israel than an unintentionally misspoken word by Chris Christie.