Newt Gingrich, the leading republican nominee for president, received $10 million towards his campaign from wealthy, hard-line Israel supporters. In the wake of these generous contributions, Gingrich’s commentary regarding Palestine has caused a legitimate concern amongst many who are aware of the realities regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Communications Intern, Noor Salahuddin discusses the Republican presidential candidates’ political positions.

The Sept. 21 opinion piece in the Daily Herald, “Israel’s future under siege from U.N.,” by Cal Thomas was inflammatory and illogical.

CAIR-Chicago Intern Noor Salahuddin discusses the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza that was prevented from delivering aid by Greek authorities at an Athens port. Noor dispels false claims made by Israeli officials in their attempts to delegitimize the humanitarian mission.

Across city campuses, effective discourse has taken place on socially relevant issues, pulling them out of the “taboo drawer” and placing them into the limelight. From gender equality to immigration, today’s student approach has consistently been “let’s talk about it.”

And then there’s Israel and Palestine.

Netanyahu’s speech did not pave the way for peace, it did not put in motion any new strategies that could be implemented to promote peace, nor did it address the dire concerns of the Palestinians. His victimization of his nation—despite having the strongest regional military force—is quite disturbing.

Ahmed Rehab is the Executive Director of CAIR Chicago: the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the President sugar-coats the US demands on Israel. “Would you please do this, pretty please do that? That’s not the message the United States should have. We need to be a lot more courageous and bold and demanding of the right thing.”

“I think the President realizes that this is a historic opportunity for us to shift our foreign policy towards the Arab world, towards acknowledging the fact that it is the millions in the street calling for democracy and freedom, that are the real voice of that part of the world – and not the sporadic, peripheral, marginal, militant radical groups,” said Ahmed Rehab.

Amina Sharif refutes the idea that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood would change Egypt into a radical Islamic state and go against the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

While Obama’s rhetoric has been encouraging, Muslims want to see more done, Amina Sharif, communications coordinator of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Thursday.

“Words are nice but action would be better,” she said.

There has been too little progress on a resolution between Israel and Palestine and Muslims are concerned about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sharif said.