Thank You for Your Comments Santorum

I do not know what all the uproar over Republican Presidential Candidate Senator Rick Santorum’s statement about Palestinians.  I believe that it is a win-win situation for Palestinians.

            Before Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich made his historically incorrect statement that Palestinians are an “invented” people, Santorum makes the following argument:

1.   Since Israel acquired the West Bank through war, a war which he erroneously states          

       the Arabs were the aggressors, then the West Bank is Israeli land;

2. Therefore the people in the West Bank are Israeli; and

3.   There are no Palestinian people.

He then states that land acquired through war should not be given back.  He further states that the United States did not give back and will not give back Texas to Mexico as the US acquired Texas through war. What Santorum does not understand is that the law of conquest has long been abandoned in international law.  During World War II, under Santorum’s logic, the Allied forces could have occupied and made Germany and Japan conquered territory—but did not. The land was given back to the German and Japanese people.

            For the sake of argument, let us assume that Santorum’s logic is correct; that the people on the West Bank are all Israelis.  Would it not logically follow that Santorum will have to acknowledge that either Israel is an apartheid state or it should allow all its “citizens” the right to vote?

            Let me explain my logic.  If all the people on the West Bank are Israelis then Santorum has to explain why Israel cannot be called an Apartheid State as it is treating its “citizens” under two different legal systems. The Palestinians (Non-Jews) living in the West Bank who Santorum calls Israelis are ruled under a different set of laws as are the Israeli settlers who are occupying lands on the West Bank.  There are roads in the West Bank that only Jews can use.  Non-Jews cannot use them.  License plates in Israel identify the owner as a Jew or Non-Jew. Non-Jews cannot live in the illegal settlements on the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Only Jews can “settle” the settlements.  Non-Jews are isolated into enclaves and are ruled by military laws.  Jews can carry guns and rifles and use them against Non-Jews.  Jews can uproot olive groves owned by Non-Jews without any retribution by the Israeli army.

            These different set of laws in the West Bank in which Israel governs its “citizens” as Santorum defines them, leads to the logical conclusion that Israel is an Apartheid State and should be known as the Apartheid State of Israel.

            Now, if Santorum is saying that the people of the West Bank are citizens of Israeli land, it is logical than as citizens, all the people should be given a right to vote in Israeli elections. If this is what Santorum is thinking, than he must advocate a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?  But this is not the case, Palestinians (I cannot keep using Non-Jews) are not allowed to vote in Israeli elections. Does it not follow that when citizens are not allowed to participate in the laws which govern them that they have a right to overthrow that government? Let me remind Santorum about the following famous words from the United States Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…

            It would follow from Santorum’s argument that as “citizens” of Israel, Palestinians have a right “to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

            So the uproar over Santorum’s statement as stupid as it is, only benefits Palestinians.  The logical interpretation is that either Israel is an Apartheid State or the two state solution is dead.

I believe that both interpretations are right. Israel is an Apartheid State and the two state solution is dead.