May 19, 20216:13 AM ET
(NPR)
"George, I need a gun."
"Of course Izzy! I've got plenty. It's a dangerous world out there and you have to protect yourself. Here, take two."
"Thanks, George."
"Self-protection only now, Izzy! No cowboy stuff. These are my guns. I'm on the hook if you go around like you got a big dick."
"George, of course not."
Next year:
"George, I need another gun."
"What happened at the OK Corral, Izzy?"
"I was defending myself! They started shooting at me first!"
"The kids you killed? The women?"
"They were using them as shields!"
"Shields don't kill people, Izzy, guns kill people."
"George!"
"Those were my guns. Registered in my name. Now the cops are going to be crawling up my ass because you wanted to be the cowboy. You're a big boy now, Izzy, go get your own guns."
One often hears, "Israel has the right to defend itself!" Bernie Sanders broadened that familiar mantra in the in the New York Times on May 15:
Israel has the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians. I strongly believe that the United States has a major role to play in helping Israelis and Palestinians to build that future.
I here zero in on "right" in both formulations. A right is person-specific. "You have the right to remain silent." Nobody can invoke your right to remain silent for you. You have to do it. The imagined dialogue between Israel and the U.S. above goes to the classic formulation.
Sanders' formulation though, boy. That covers a lot of ground, far more ground than is encompassed in the right to self-defense. Now the dialogue is, "No George, the women and children were not shooting guns at me, I had to kill them for my peace and security."
Is there such a "right" that Sanders deems absolute? Since Israel, and the Palestinians, have it presumably the U.S. does too? How many times in its history has the U.S. experienced this peace and security which is its absolute right? More than most countries, I allow; more than Israel has, but not as much as "absolute right" guarantees. Have the Palestinians ever experienced their absolute right to live in peace and security? No, there is no such right. Sanders formulation is nonsense.
Rights imply obligations. Some higher force, the Law, the U.N., the U.S., must protect your rights. Is there a duty to protect? Samantha Power argued yes, but there is not. If I see two people in a gun fight, I do not have the duty to break it up. Israel's right to self-defense does not mean somebody else has the obligation to defend her. If I do get involved, play a "major role", by say, giving one side an AK-47, I am exercising the right to self-defense that the favored combatant has specific to him. I am on the hook if he sprays an apartment building with gunfire. I ought not do that and the United States ought not do that anymore on behalf of Izzy.
