Israel “Our Close Friend,” Obama “Irrational”: Ron Paul



Ron Paul

The Right Perspective
May 21, 2011

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has condemned US President Barack Obama as “irrational” for calling on “our close friend” Israel to move back to its pre-1967 borders.

“Once again this administration has proven that it does not understand a proper foreign policy for America,” Paul wrote in a statement on Obama’s Thursday speech. “When will our leaders finally do what’s right for America and rethink this irrational approach we’ve followed for far too long?”

“Israel is our close friend,” Paul continued. “While President Obama’s demand that Israel make hard concessions in her border conflicts may very well be in her long-term interest, only Israel can make that determination on her own, without pressure from the United States or coercion by the United Nations.
“Unlike this President, I do not believe it is our place to dictate how Israel runs her affairs,” Paul writes. “There can only be peace in the region if those sides work out their differences among one another. We should respect Israel’s sovereignty and not try to dictate her policy from Washington.

Ron Paul says Obama is "irrational" to make Israel move back to pre-1967 borders.

The Republican congressman from Texas also blasted Obama’s “unconstitutional intervention in Libya” as being “authorized not by the United States Congress but by the United Nations,” and questioned how much more the American taxpayer would be willing to spend on wars when the country faces a US$ 2 trillion defecit.

“Our military’s purpose is to defend our country, not to police the Middle East,” Paul said.
“As the President prepares to send even more support to Egypt, we should be reminded that it was our foreign aid that helped Mubarak retain power to repress his people in the first place,” Paul continued. “Now we have to deal with the consequences of those decisions, yet we keep repeating the same mistakes.
“I am not the only one who can see the absurdities of our foreign policy. We give $3 billion to Israel and $12 billion to her enemies. Most Americans know that makes no sense,” Paul wrote.

“We need to come to our senses, trade with our friends in the Middle East (both Arab and Israeli), clean up our own economic mess so we set a good example, and allow them to work out their own conflicts.”