Rand Paul wants to cut off aid to Palestinian government
Updated 1:43 p.m. ET, 4/28/2014
(CNN) - Sen. Rand Paul plans to introduce a bill this week to cut foreign aid to the Palestinian government unless it recognizes Israel's right to exist, the senator announced Monday.
His proposal comes as the rival movements of Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinian territories reached a deal to form a unity government, a potentially major development as the Palestinian Authority seeks statehood.
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The Kentucky Republican argued in a statement that the agreement "brings both danger and opportunity to the peace process, and the next five weeks may prove critical."
“The bill that I am introducing will say....we won’t send it to (the Palestinians) unless they recognize Israel’s right to exist and that they end hostilities with Israel," Paul said at an event Monday in Louisville.
As Paul has seen his numbers rise in hypothetical 2016 presidential polls, the libertarian-leaning senator has come under increased scrutiny from mainstream Republicans about his non-interventionist foreign policy views.
Paul has long called for an end to all U.S. foreign aid, including to Israel, though he has said he prefers to cut off assistance to Israel's enemies first, before gradually moving on to Israel itself.
Paul visited the region last year.
He has also pushed legislation that would strip Pakistan, Egypt and Libya of U.S. aid.
CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash contributed to this report.
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@HJA, we already have that in the US. It's called racism and not being rich or famous.
Talk to the SCOTUS
So now little Ayn Rand Paul is an expert in foreign policy?
rs
Perhaps the more equitable thing to do is to cut off both sides until some commitment to real peace is made.
April 28, 2014 11:38 am at 11:38 am
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Agreed. Israel has done nothing in the last twenty years but come up with more and more ridiculous excuses for why they can't possibly talk with the Palestinians (including for a while the sophism that the Palestinians as a people don't really exist, which is ironic given that the experience of military, political and economic oppression by Israel is what has come to define them), and then Israel gets all "outraged" that the extremists are the only ones left to deal with. Well, surprise! Who'da thunk? It's time we quit supporting this charade. Israel has become the overly aggressive small dog that thinks the big dog is always going to back it up. If this is what a Jewish state comes to then maybe it's time (or past time) that Israel become an Jewish/Muslim state. Clearly the current Israeli power brokers will never allow a two-state solution to even get started, forget functioning in any kind of reasonable manner. And all Hamas has to say is "Boo!" to keep things just the way they are, with Hamas in charge. We Americans are dumb to let this stupid game continue on our dime.
@Chris-E...al
I Say just give it all away ! And run out of everthing and start over democrats want be happy till we do anyway . .
Can we have that again, but this time in English?
Fair is Fair wrote:
And you just continue to make it up as you go.
IT WAS NOT a peace treaty between Israel and "the Arab world". It was between Israel and Egypt – period. Your semantic double-speak after the fact is par for the course when you try to cover up your original misstatements. Just admit when you're wrong, Rudy. It can be liberating.
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Egypt was the military fist of the Arab world in the 1960s, Fair. Delude yourself if you will. The Begin/Sadat treaty was hailed as a peace agreement with the Arab world at the time, which does not mean that the entire Arab, or muslim, world agreed with it. Egypt recognized Israel, and other countries followed suit.
Jeff Brown in Jersey
So now little Ayn Rand Paul is an expert in foreign policy?
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Well ... no, not really. But he does have much pandering to attend to in the next two years. I suspect he's gunning for an early start.
@ Fair is fair
"Report: Netanyahu says 9/11 terror attacks good for Israel" (Haaretz, Apr. 16, 2008)
"The five [Mossad operatives] men — Sivan and Paul Kurzberg, Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari and Yaron Shmuel — were arrested eight hours after the [9/11] attacks by the Bergen County, N.J., police while driving in an Urban Moving Systems van. The police acted on an FBI alert after the men allegedly were seen acting strangely [cheering and dancing, taking pics with a light in front of the burning Twin Towers, etc] while watching the events from the roof of their warehouse and the roof of their van." -"Spy Rumors Fly on Gusts of Truth" (The Jewish Daily Forward, March 15, 2002)
Taking a hard stance on Palestinians all the while softening the tone towards the Israelis is more about pleasing the Evangelicals in the Republican base than it is about Middle East peace or Libertarianism. It is a fact that Evangelicals make up 70% of the pro-Israeli lobby in this country.