Ron Paul and Israel...

Setting himself far apart from his Republican colleagues, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul on Tuesday night suggested that the U.S. should have less involvement in Israel's affairs.

"I think they're quite capable of taking care of themselves," he said.

The statement came in response to a question in a Tuesday night debate about whether the GOP candidates would, as president, support Israel in an attack against Iran.

Paul responded that he wouldn't expect such an attack to take place -- but if it were to, "Why does Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way."

The United States sends roughly $3 billion to Israel in military assistance every year.


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If they were to conduct such an attack, "that's their business, but they should suffer the consequences," Paul continued. He added that Israel has hundreds of nuclear missiles, so "they can take care of themselves."


One of the necessary reasons for the U.S.-Israeli diplomatic and economic relations to continue is because Israel is not part of the non-proliferation treaty and have always kept their nuclear program somewhat of a secret from U.N. officials and American intelligence sources. Intelligence that is publicly known suggests that at one time Israel was involved with testing nuclear bombs in 1979, around the time it is believed that South Africa was.


Our economy is hurting enough, but just because you cut off foreign aid to a place as critical as Israel, a nation that is a nuclear country with a policy for opacity that demands strong control over providing the marketplaces that give to industry and commerce that U.S. companies allow. Industry and commerce that helps other nations struggling in the region to keep peace as they try to form a more stable government. Israeli secrets over weapons technology gives them a strategic advantage in a supposedly de-proliferational global network, a posture that has the capacity to likely puncture vital trade agreements in occpied and unoccupied territories that allow U.S. companies to prosper- and our service epeople in the military to have job. Even sanctioning Iran with tighter restrictions gives Israel more control and influence on the regions' overall political shifts. And also, the ability to manipulate the levels of peace adjoining societies can achieve within themselves, especially in locations that are constantly seeing bombings and social unrest (while they build their nations up using trade relationships with the U.S., 240 billion flows through Israel, per year by some estimates).


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