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. 

The Israeli Mirage Seen By American Voters

In a recent poll American voter’s showed support for pro-Israeli candidates—my analysis is that the Israeli lobby has painted a mirage.  The perception that Apartheid Israel is a democracy surrounded by hostile American hating Muslims has been craftily molded by the powerful lobby for decades. Unfortunately, in American politics, perception is reality.

If Americans knew the “reality” about Apartheid Israel that perception would change.  Apartheid Israel receives $3 billion of US aid annually—not to mention the many other millions in military aid.   While local budgets are being slashed here in the US, aid to the Apartheid Regime increases annually.  While resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is, as President Barrack Obama has stated, a national security concern, Apartheid Israel rebukes the leader of the free world by building more illegal West Bank settlements, effectively killing peace.  Israeli Prime Minister, the chief Apartheid, Benjamin Netanyahu wants no preconditions to negotiations, wants to continue to build settlements despite the fact that negotiations would lead to the dismantling of those settlements and wants the Apartheid State of Israel to be recognized as a Jewish State.

Many American voters do not really know the reality of what Apartheid Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Political observers, including former President Jimmy Carter, have called Israel an apartheid government.  Apartheid Israel has built a wall that cuts off families from each other; cuts off farmers from their fields; and isolates towns into an open air prison.   Apartheid Israel has carved Palestinian land in the West Bank by designating areas into A B and C zones. It has instituted military checkpoints that make a 10 minute route from Ramallah to Beir Zeit a 3 hour ride.   Through its checkpoints, Israel restricts students from attending universities; restricts goods from being brought to markets and restricts worshipers from worshiping in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Apartheid Israel does not approve building permits and when a home is built in Palestine it demolishes it.  It uses the demolition of homes as a collective punishment against families or whole towns.


To destroy commerce, the brutal Israeli military protects Apartheid Israeli settlers who uproot groves of olive trees which have been the only source of income for their owner’s families for centuries.

Apartheid Israel segregates Palestinians from apartheid settlers by building Jews only by-pass roads.

Israel tortures Palestinian prisoners, makes them sign false confessions written in Hebrew—a language that the Palestinians cannot read.  Do the voters know that Israeli soldiers abuse Palestinian soldiers much like US soldiers who mocked Iraqi citizens in Abu Ghraib prison?

Do voters really know that within the current Apartheid regime in Israel there is a coalition partner whose spiritual leader advocates the annihilation of Palestinians?  The spiritual leader of the Chas Party Ovadia Yousef has made statements that Israel should annihilate the Palestinians.  With all the anger in Apartheid Israel about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad”s rhetoric denying the holocaust, it is ironic that a Jewish spiritual leader would utter a word that even implies the annihilation of another people.  Yet the Chas Party is a major coalition partner in the Chief Apartheid Netanyahu government.  Do American voters know this reality?

The mirage that the Israel lobby has painted would fade into the sunset and American voters would favor justice if only they know reality.

(  © Copyright, Fadi Zanayed.  Publication or distribution of this material is allowed provided its content is not altered and the source and its author are cited.)