Free Republic

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, is blaming U.S. policy for the upheaval in Egypt. "This is a typical example of what happens when we run on intervention-type foreign policies. We get in the middle of these fights. We've been in the middle of this for 30 years now. We've given Mubarak $60 billion. We're responsible for a lot of the mess that is over there," Paul said this afternoon on FOX News Channel's Your World with Neil Cavuto. Paul, a potential Senate candidate in Texas next year, is a longstanding critic of foreign entanglements, and probably Congress' leading isolationist. His...

America’s Entangling Alliances in the Middle Eastby Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) April 12, 2002 We were warned, and in the early years of our Republic, we heeded that warning. Today, though, we are entangled in everyone’s affairs throughout the world, and we are less safe as a result. The current Middle-East crisis is one that we helped create, and it is typical of how foreign intervention fails to serve our interests. Now we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a fight that will not soon end. No matter what the outcome, we lose.By trying to support both sides...

Paul ranks alongside ultra-liberal Dennis Kucinich as having the weakest foreign policy stances in the U.S. House. Tuesday, Paul and Kucinich were two of only 12 House members that voted against imposing new sanctions on Iran. The resolution that would penalize foreign companies from selling oil to Iran passed 412-12. "This will unify the Iranian people against us," Paul incorrectly predicts.

At a campaign event that drew more than 300 people here late Sunday afternoon, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) defended his Israel policy in response to a question from an undecided voter, an answer that included, in part, the suggestion that Israel “should be the Hong Kong of the Middle East.” “I would want to maintain very close relations with Israel,” Paul said. “I’d want to be a good friend of Israel. And I also want to respect them in many ways that I do not think the United States should undermine their sovereignty in any way.” He went on to...

The vehemently anti-war group is organizing a slew of events this weekend in opposition to the United States' Israel policy, to coincide with the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Ahead of the protests, a Code Pink activist suggested the group -- at least when it comes to Israel -- is actually on the same page as Paul, a libertarian and one of the first candidates to enter the race for the GOP presidential nomination. "The Ron Paul people are closer and closer to our talking points with each election," Code Pink activist Liz Hourican told FoxNews.com.

The Israel Lobby which controls American foreign policy, but has thus far been unable to get the United States to stop funding the terrorists currently shooting rockets at its 14th largest city, has struck again as Senate Democrats voted unanimously to make Chuck Hagel the next Secretary of Defense. The dreaded Israeli Lobby, Jewish Lobby, Israel Lobby or any other permutation of the form that you prefer, has largely kept silent during the Hagel nomination. The head of the ADL was heard to mutter something and the AJC suggested that the Senate should possibly rethink the nomination before falling silent...

Long ago Bill Buckley drummed the anti-Semites out of the conservative movement, and the movement thrived as a result. But the Jew-haters have returned. For years the Texas crackpot, Ron Paul, has been attacking America and Israel as imperialist powers — the Great Satan and the Little Satan, and calling for America’s retreat from the battle against our totalitarian enemies. At the recent CPAC conference Paul’s Jew-hating storm-troopers swarmed the Freedom Center’s table to vent their spleen against Israel as a Nazi state. Now Paul is making a priority of withdrawing aid for Israel — the only democracy in the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that the Sunni militants taking over Iraq have quickly gained power because the United States has armed their group in Syria. “I think we have to understand first how we got here,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We have been arming [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] ISIS in Syria.” ISIS, an al Qaeda offshoot, has been collaborating with the Syrian rebels whom the Obama administration has been arming in their efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Paul explained. The administration has reportedly assisted the moderate opposition in Syria,...

Don't laugh. He has built-in advantages in Iowa and New Hampshire, a party moving in his direction, and formidable fundraising potential. If Chris Christie was ever the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, he isn’t anymore. All along, the theory behind his candidacy was that he could overcome his lack of conservative bona fides with a combination of personality, competence, electability, and money. Bridgegate undermines all four. In the minds of many voters, Christie’s personality has morphed from brash to bully. It’s harder to look competent when your top aides egregiously abused power under your nose. Christie’s supposed electability...

Israel should give up US military aid It would be wise for Israel to take the initiative, before Tea Party Republicans make a move. 19 January 11 15:06, Ran Dagoni, Washington The time has come to bid goodbye to the military aid that the US extends to Israel, that generous package (currently worth $3 billion) that enables the Israeli taxpayer to share the cost of procuring equipment for the IDF with the US taxpayer. Israel should itself initiate the process of detachment from the Washington breast. It should be done gradually, on terms that will enable Israel to wean itself...

<p>WASHINGTON — It was bound to happen eventually. Two tea party allies angling for president can’t agree on everything, and Tuesday, a gaping foreign policy schism came into focus as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul went out of his way to critique Sen. Ted Cruz’s approach to Syria.</p>

The libertarian advocacy group that grew out of Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign slammed Sen. Marco Rubio Wednesday after the Florida Republican voted against a bill to freeze aid to Egypt that had been introduced by Paul’s son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The younger Paul’s bill, which would have halted $1.5 billion in annual aid given to Egypt, failed Wednesday by a lopsided of 86-13 vote. The Ron Paul-inspired group, Campaign for Liberty, released a statement to its national press list after the vote, singling out Rubio and calling his decision “disgraceful.” “Senator Rubio today stood with President Obama and...

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome from a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) skipped out on the speech, staging what appeared to be a silent protest of America’s foreign aid to Israel. As senators gathered on the Senate floor before the address, Paul was spotted speaking to his staffers toward the back of the chamber. As the Senate procession across the Capitol began, the tea-party-backed senator quietly walked to his desk, sat down and began shuffling through papers and newspapers.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s views on Israel and Iran have been greatly misunderstood, his son Senator Rand Paul said in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post just hours before Iowans voted in the first caucuses for the GOP nomination Tuesday night. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who like his father espouses libertarian views, said his father’s positions on the threat of a nuclear Iran are in line with those of Mossad head Tamir Pardo and other prominent Israeli figures, who he suggested has questioned the wisdom of using a military option against Iran. Pardo was quoted...

I've obtained a document that the Rand Paul campaign is circulating to those interested in his views on Israel... [snip] "Israel and the United States have a special relationship," Rand's position paper begins. "With our shared history and common values, the American and Israeli people have formed a bond that unites us across the many thousands of miles between our countries and calls us to work together towards peace and prosperity for our countries." [snip] In one clear departure from his father, Rand states that: As a United States Senator, I would never vote to condemn Israel for defending herself.

Nothing surprising here but the quotes are oh so tasty. Including one that comes, secondhand, from Paul himself. Is that what the last month of Russia-bashing and Tomahawk-praising was all about? Is Rand … “evolving” on foreign policy? The [Republican Jewish Coalition] conference brings together some of the biggest names — and wallets — in Republican politics, most notably billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. At a private dinner for VIP donors in an Adelson-owned aircraft hangar holding one of his pair of Boeing 747s, Bush was asked about the growing isolationist wing of the Republican Party and replied there was...

Allahpundit wrote Wednesday that Rand Paul is working hard to differentiate from his father's brand, but --- wow. Breitbart's Ben Shapiro asked Paul the Younger about aid to Israel, which Paul says he'd like to eliminate only after eliminating all foreign aid --- and that the effort should start with nations where the people "burn the American flag," and perhaps Israel last. If President, Paul pledges to send a message that American troops will intervene on Israel's behalf if attacked, regardless of aid decisions, using the NATO formulation:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took what...

Tea party-backed Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) isn’t sure that congressional Republicans have the guts to make the big budget cuts they’ve promised and, he said, members of the movement are becoming frustrated. “There’s a disconnect between Republicans who want a balanced budget but aren’t maybe yet brave enough to talk about the cuts to come,” the freshman senator said in an interview with ABC News, responding to the spending plan released Thursday by the House Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which would cut non-defense discretionary spending by $58 billion for the rest of fiscal 2011. “I go to...

According to a statement by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, he is planning to propose a bill that would suspend the US government's aid to the Palestinians. The proposal is said to be a response to the reconciliation between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas-led Fatah and Hamas, which is the militant Islamist group that currently rules the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Haaretz said that the proposal also follows the warnings issued by key Congressional appropriators Nita Lowey and Kay Granger, who has voted to cut off financial aid to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the Palestinians' warming to the militant...

Skip ahead to 3:15 for the exchange on foreign aid generally and to 4:15 for the key bit. Paul’s not singling Israel out here; it’s Blitzer who brings it up, and Paul’s careful to offer praise before making his case that we simply can’t afford it anymore. He knows he’s suspect on this point because of his surname and has tried to deal with it behind the scenes. Remember this tidbit from that GQ hit piece on him last year? Ron Paul, in addition to his extreme views on the federal government, has been a harsh critic of the Republican...