We posted this video more than a month ago, but it’s worth reposting in light of Rick Santorum’s kinda triumph last night. ThinkProgress’s Eli Clifton, a great reporter, snagged this a while back (and you wonder why Center for American Progress is under attack from the right wing). His transcript of a bristling exchange between a young person and the former Pennsylvania senator, who has obviously studied hasbara:
QUESTIONER: Do you think Israel should dismantle its settlements?
SANTORUM: No. The West Bank, is this part of Israel?
QUESTIONER: [inaudible] According to 48? [inaudible] […]
SANTORUM: Is Mexico part of the United States?
QUESTIONER: No.
SANTORUM: How did we get New Mexico and Texas?
QUESTIONER: Through war.
SANTORUM: How did they get the West Bank? [inaudible] Through a war. Should we give Texas back to Mexico?
QUESTIONER: Well I don’t think you should recognize recent annexations.
SANTORUM: Oh, so it depends whether it’s recent or not? So we should have given New Mexico and Texas back 150 years go? […] The bottom line is that that is legitimately Israeli country. And they have a right to do within their country just like we have a right to do within our country. If they want to negotiate with Israelis– and all the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis, they’re not Palestinians. There is no Palestinian, this is Israeli land.
One state, one vote, the Apartheid state of Israel becomes even more apparent as Mearsheimer and others have pointed out
Problem with Santorum’s comparison is that Texas and New Mexico are not completely surrounded by other countries that know you stole the land and have treated the rightful owners horribly
These pro fetus fake Christian folks really get under my skin. Not pro life at all not all. Hide behind their damn little crosses while they try to make sure people do not have access to health care etc. When they shout out their fake family values standing behind their alleged religious beliefs they are fair game.
kinda tragedy, not triumph…this guy is dangerous. ww III guaranteed
The questioner bumbled. Completely bumbled. Santorums first question…was the West Bank part of Israel? NO NO NO. Aggressive attack by Jordan and other countries NO NO NO NO. Israel was the aggressor..
Santorum ran over that guy. Unless his goal was to allow Santorum to roll over him.
Could have simply asked Santorum “does he value or have any respect for international law and treaties?” “Does he have any respect for the very international body..the UN that created Israel?”
romney won by 8 votes
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/03/gop-candidates-await-iowa-verdict/
imho, this means the gop in iowa called the shots. who knows.
A conservative is a person who wishes to conserve something. In USA politics, it is usually his own power and prerogative and preeminence and privilege that he wishes to conserve. (A conservationist wants to preserve nature without destruction by people and their doings. That is another sort of conservatism altogether, running sharply against the first type of conservatism.)
The “right” that comes from the barrel of guns is highly prized by those who have guns. Santorum likes the idea that Israel won it and gets to keep it. “International law, take a hike,” he seems to say though maybe he doesn’t know anything about it, or about the UN Charter and UNSC 242.
An interesting question no-one ever seems to ask people like Santorum, is whether the Palestinians should be allowed to keep all of Palestine in the (unlikely) event that they can capture it back from Israel.
Another interesting question is why the USA should use its thumb-on-the-scale to help Israel win its wars instead of allowing it to fight things out with its neighbors on a fairer basis. Where’s the interest of the average American in using our money, our army, our UNSC veto, etc., to constantly bail Israel out? If it is such an obviously failed state constantly on the “dole” (like all those notional welfare mothers the Republicans keep talking about), why should the USA keep dishing money out to it?