The Republican Party presidential primaries in the United States begin next month, and the polls say the former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, has a 15 percentage point lead over his closest rival, the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. The difference is greater in states where the early primaries will take place, such as South Carolina and Florida (I will have another column this week on Gingrich's denial of the existence of the Palestinians and their rights in their country). Before the Republican Jewish Coalition last week, Gingrich announced that if he is selected to run against Barack Obama on 6 November 2012, he will appoint the pro-Likud extremist John Bolton secretary of state. If Gingrich wins the Republican nomination, and defeats Obama and becomes president, and selects Bolton as secretary of state, I will personally declare that day that I cut all non-diplomatic ties with the US; I will not visit the country, as long as these two trouble-makers are in office. Gingrich is opportunistic, vain, mercurial and extremist; this is what Romney's supporters said two days ago. Moreover, his adultery is borderline deviant. He avoided military service, while supporting aggressive wars in which young Americans are killed. He divorced his first wife, Jackie, while she was recovering in hospital. He married his second, Marianne, and then had a relationship with Callista Bisek, a congressional employee 23 years younger than him. The most important part of his sexual tales, some of them so scandalous that I can only skim over them here, is that he was committing adultery and leading a campaign in Congress to impeach Bill Clinton, for his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; in other words, he was committing what he considered an unforgiveable crime by others. I do not know how Gingrich came to lead the Republican presidential candidates. Only six months ago, he was the butt of jokes from his party's leaders, and all Americans. A story was published about him, talking about how he and Callista owed Tiffany's half a million dollars. When election campaigns took place in Iowa and New Hampshire, he went on a vacation to the Greek islands, which caused most of his campaign staff to resign; some of them attacked him fiercely. This man is not fit to be president of a banana republic, and he is now being talked about as a possible US president. Perhaps it is a consolation for us to have leaders who have departed, or will depart, because they are better than him, although this would appear to be impossible. Romney was the likely candidate until last month. For the Arabs, all of them are Newt Gingrich. Romney chose the forum of the Republican Jewish Coalition, like his rival, to attack President Obama and say he was guilty of appeasement, and "more generous to our enemies than our friends." He meant Israel, the friend, while Arab and Muslim countries are enemies. I will ignore Herman Cain, whose sexual scandals forced him to suspend his campaign, after he was in the lead, and Michelle Bachmann, because she loses a thousand potential supporters every time she opens her mouth, and Rick Santorum, because his support is negligible, and Ron Paul, my favorite Republican candidate, because the party establishment is fighting him. I will stick today to Gingrich and Romney, and the Florida governor, Rick Perry, because they are in the lead, and will focus on foreign policy. Gingrich is a pro-Israeli extremist. Bolton is another Netanyahu, and he will be the secretary of state of Israel, not the US. Romney and Perry are little better than Gingrich, although they are not great; they are supporters of Israel and hostile to the interests of all Arabs and Muslims. Perhaps some readers will recall their comments at a debate broadcasted by CNN, which dealt with foreign policy. Perry claimed Hamas and Hezbollah were active in Mexico, along with Iran, in order to enter the US. This is a total lie; Hamas and Hezbollah are national liberation movements and Israel is a fascist terrorist organization that kills, destroys and occupies the homes of Palestinians. Romney repeated something similar, claiming that "we have, right now, Hezbollah, which is working throughout Latin America," including Venezuela and Mexico, "which represents a very significant and imminent threat to the United States of America." The US State Department's own report on terror, which has never seen the terror of Israel, does not claim that Hamas and Hezbollah are in Mexico. It is a case of bad and worse; I think it likely that Americans will reject the Republican Party's choice for president, and we will remain with Obama for another four years, when we will learn about his true nature, without the pressure of re-election. [email protected]
