Paul advocates that the U.S. end all aid to Israel because only then
“Israel would finally have the motivation to take care of herself,”
Paul’s website says. He also wants to cut aid to all Arab countries.
Overall, Paul thinks that Israel and Israel alone ought to deal with
issues of domestic and regional concern, namely resolving the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
"I would cut all foreign aid. I would treat everybody equally
and fairly. And I don't think aid to Israel actually helps them. I think
it teaches them to be dependent. We're on a bankruptcy course.
And -- and look at what's the result of all that foreign aid we gave
to Egypt? I mean, their -- their dictator that we pumped up, we spent
all these billions of dollars, and now there's a more hostile regime
in Egypt. And that's what's happening all around Israel. That foreign
aid makes Israel dependent on us. It softens them for their own economy.
And they should have their sovereignty back. They should be able to
deal with their neighbors."
- Republican
Presidential Debate in Nevada, October 18, 2011
"There are a lot of people
at the UN who say that Iran will not have a weapon. It is no different
than 2003. There are war propagandas going on and it’s another
Iraq. We are going to overreact and bomb Iran. The head of Israeli security
says it would make no sense to take Iran out because they might be having
a weapon. There is no evidence that they have a bomb.
If we lived through the cold war we need to sit back and think and not
jump the gun. That’s how we got involved in the useless war in
Iraq and lost so much.
All we are doing is promoting their
desire to have one. They are surrounded for geopolitical reasons and
they have a desire to get a lot more respect. Look what we did to Libya.
We talked them out of nuclear weapons and then we killed them. We have
to get things in a proper context and we don’t need another
war...
I want to see less nuclear weapons. I don’t
want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. To say that all Muslims
are the same is dangerous talk. They don’t come to kill us because
we are free and prosperous. Why aren’t they killing people in
Switzerland. They only want to come and do us harm because we are bombing
them. We are begging and pleading to get a drone back but why did we
have a drone up there anyway? We have hundreds of bases and all these
drones and things and we are totally bankrupt...This wild goal to have
yet another war is us overreacting and we only need to go to war with
a declaration of war."
- Republican
Presidential Debate in Iowa, December 15, 2011
QUESTION: Congressman Paul, would you support Israel
and help Israel in such an attack [to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear
weapons]?
PAUL: "No, I wouldn't do that. But there would be good reasons
because I don't expect it to happen. Because, you know, the Mossad leader
that just retired said it would be the stupidest thing to do in the
world. And it's a big argument over in Israel. They're not about to
do this.
"They've just polled 40 major experts on foreign policy here by
the National Journal. Not one of them said there should be a unilateral
attack on the sites in Iran.
"So that's not going to happen. And if it did, why does
Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way. I mean,
we interfere with them. We interfere with them when they deal with their
borders. When they want to have peace treaties, we tell them what they
can do because we buy their allegiance and they sacrifice their sovereignty
to us. And then they decide they want to bomb something, that's their
business, but they should, you know, suffer the consequences. When they
bombed the Iraqi missile site, nuclear site, back in the '80s, I was
one of the few in Congress that said it's none of our business and Israel
should take care of themselves. Israel has 200, 300 nuclear
missiles. And they can take care of themselves.
"Why should we commit -- we don't even have a treaty with Israel.
Why do we have this automatic commitment that we're going to send our
kids and send our money endlessly to Israel? So I think they're quite
capable of taking care of themselves.
"I think we do detriment -- just think of all the money we gave
toEgypt over 30 or 40 years. Now, look, we were buying friendship. Now
there's a civil war, they're less friendly to Israel.
"The whole thing is going to backfire once we go bankrupt and
we remove our troops, so I think we should be very cautious in our willingness
to go to war and send troops without a proper declaration by the U.S.
Congress."
- Republican
Presidential Debate in Washington, D.C., November 22, 2011
Congressman Paul claims Iran is "a big nobody"
and is not seeking to build a nuclear weapon but rather is waiting until
"the Zionist regime collapses." Essentially, Paul's policy
recommendation for U.S.-Israel relations is “Israel can do what
she wants – but leave America out of it.”
- RonPaul.com,
August 14, 2011.
"Sanctions are not diplomacy. They are a precursor
to war and an embarrassment to a country that pays lip service to free
trade."
- United States House website, December 20, 2009
