Kessler's Pinocchio Test Fails

Glenn Kessler discusses the remarks of Rick Santorum (which I blogged here in November) at the Washington Post on Rick Santorum’s claim that ‘no Palestinian’ lives in the West Bank and gives him marks in his "Pinocchio Test" which is a measure of truth.

He gives Santorum 4 minuses.

Why?

Here (and my comments italicized in brackets):-

Santorum might argue that he is simply expressing an opinion here — and certainly we take no position on his statements about Israeli settlements. But he appears to be stating this as a fact — there are no “Palestinians” living in the West Bank and this is Israeli land.

But that stance is flatly refuted by the Israeli government, which calls the land “disputed territory” and does not grant Israeli citizenship to the Palestinians living in the West Bank. In fact, the Israeli Foreign Ministry refers to areas of “Palestinian jurisdiction.” [a. the'Israeli land' reference meant that the land the state of Israel now administers is not foreign territory but land that the League of Nations acknowledged as part of the historic Jewish national home and not that it is part of Israel; b. and the 'Palestinian jurisdiction' refers to the Palestinian Authority, not to any recognized national grouping called "Palestinian".]

The Israeli position that the territories are “disputed” is not accepted by much of the world [which doesn't mean anything as far as the question], but it seems that the very least a potential U.S. president could do is accept the definitions used by the Israeli government.

He also notes:

...Israel, which over international protests annexed land around Jerusalem, has not annexed the West Bank but instead has labeled it “disputed territory” subject to negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state.

As Israel’s Foreign Ministry puts it: “The West Bank can best be regarded as disputed territory over which there are competing claims that should be resolved in peace talks. The final status of this disputed territory should be determined through negotiations between the parties.” [well, the final statuys could very well be that there is no "Palestine" and therefore no "Palestinians" but Arabs]

Moreover, because of a series of agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, Palestinians have now acquired self-government over tracts of West Bank territory...Israel makes no claim that the Arabs residing in the West Bank are Israelis and in fact has already given up some governmental control to Palestinian self-rule — with the implication that even more territory will eventually form a Palestinian state [or not].

...According to the CIA World Factbook, about 2.6 million people live in the West Bank, including nearly 300,000 Israeli settlers [er, are they "Palestinians"?]. (Another 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state.) The CIA lists the population of the West Bank as “Palestinian Arab and other 83%, Jewish 17 %.”

So, who has the Pinocchio nose?

^