Haroon Moghul tracked down Abraham Hassan, the Christian Palestinian-American Republican who asked a question at the last Florida debate (via Andrew). As viewers of the debate will recall, Gingrich and Romney blew off his question and repeated their usual “pro-Israel” talking points. Interestingly, this has not completely alienated Hassan:

This is important because it’s a tight race. And there are a lot of Arabs in Florida (as indeed there are a lot of Muslims), and they might be up for grabs. As Hassan put it, “I’m economically and socially conservative”; in fact, we had a hard time getting time with him because he’s a busy businessman, the kind of entrepreneurial type who’s supposed to be naturally, organically Republican.

When I asked him if his treatment by the leading GOP candidates might persuade him to reconsider parties, Hassan said he wouldn’t “turncoat” at the first “sign of adversity.”

Hassan is exactly the sort of voter that Republicans often claim to be seeking: “natural” conservatives drawn to the party because of shared principles. The candidates didn’t manage to drive him away from the party, but I wonder how many others with similar views were lost because of those answers. His question was one concerned with policy, but it was also a challenge to the leading Republicans to show some minimal respect. Gingrich and Romney failed on both counts. This was the question:

How would a Republican administration help bring peace to Palestine and Israel when most candidates barely recognize the existence of Palestine or its people? As a Palestinian-American Republican, I’m here to tell you we do exist.

There were many ways the candidates could have answered this that wouldn’t have been insulting. They might have said that it isn’t up the U.S. to “bring peace,” and that this is up to the two parties to the conflict, or they could have said that there can be no sustainable peace if the interests of both nations are not taken seriously. Indeed, Romney and Gingrich could have said almost anything but what they did say. As it was, we heard Romney telling Hassan that Palestinians don’t want a two-state solution (which is not true) and Gingrich lecturing him on his identity. The candidates may not have driven Hassan away, but they gave a lot of “natural” conservatives and younger voters another reason not to support them.