Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Rand Paul’s New Message on Israel

The headline above comes directly from a WaPo blog post. The neocons are really pumping up Rand Paul.

Jennifer Rubin, the author of the blog post, writes yet another column about him:

Rand Paul has received some criticism for his own regarding Israel. This year he hung up a vote in the Senate on Iran sanctions. That, along with his previously emphatic statements against foreign aid, have given the appearance of being anti-Israel. Others, unfairly in our view, attribute his father’s views to him. 
I asked him if there is one perception about him that is particularly wrong. Without skipping a beat, he replied, “That I am unfriendly to Israel.” He is going to Israel for the first time. He told me, “We’ll have some meetings with political leaders. I want to hear from all sides.”
 Then she brings out the heavy artillery, a "pro-Israel leader" and a  Zionist-Christian leader to comment on Rand:
Christian Zionists appear willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, for now. One pro-Israel leader says, “The question before me is if he is different than his dad — smarter than his dad –  or just making the right noise.” He adds wryly, “Evangelicals believe in forgiveness.”
I spoke Tuesday night with David Brog, executive director of the country’s largest pro-Zionist group, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which has been outspoken in criticizing Paul’s advocacy for cuts in crucial military aid to Israel. Brog explained CUFI’s past concerns: “Paul has thus far seemed oblivious to the reality that Israel’s military is fighting our battles for us and keeping us from having to send our own soldiers to do the job.” Nevertheless, Brog told me that “we’re certainly encouraged to learn that Senator Paul is traveling to Israel. We know that the facts are on Israel’s side. And we know from long experience that there’s nothing like a visit to Israel to learn facts and change minds. We’ve seen such trips work complete transformations in the past, most notably when Senator Jesse Helms flew to Israel in 1984 as a vocal critic of the Jewish state and returned home to be among Israel’s staunchest supporters.” 
Brog makes the case that support for Israel actually meshes with Paul’s desire to conduct foreign policy with limited revenues. By providing military aid to Israel, Brog argued, we enable an ally to fight our common enemies. He said, “I hope Sen. Paul sees that his economic policy and foreign policy and political interests need not conflict with support for Israel. In fact, it will earn him a great following.”
Oh yeah, I just can't wait. What kind of man will Rand return after his visit to Israel?

8 comments:

  1. "... [S]marter than his dad..."?

    The jury is already in with the verdict on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. When Rand Paul had a dispute recently with the editor for Commentary he did something quite interesting (on the rhetorical level). He managed to sound like a patriotic American who was defending a usually reliable ally getting unfairly attacked by someone who was pathetically compromised and could not give two shits about this country beyond its relation to Israel. Kristol and Rubin took note of this, and are smart enough to know which side of that argument looks the more attractive, and thus are latching on to Paul.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Others, unfairly in our view, attribute his father’s views to him.

    Oh, the horrors of being associated with his father's fight for freedom. Rand needs to run as fast as he can from these neocon degenerates. He's committing political suicide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. with us he is no doubt about it but we are a very small (but much bigger than where we were) group.
      However there are dozens of aspiring pols pitching to that neocon/CZ turf and Rand is just joining that chorus.
      Really the democrats must be shaking their heads in disbelief that the republicans keep to the course, abandoning all others.

      Delete
  4. He should go and STAY over there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Washington Post is now using the phrase "Christian Zionist" casually. This is news.

    ReplyDelete
  6. “Regardless of his motives, Republicans would be foolish to treat Rand Paul as a clone of his father…”

    Read: We, the mainstream media, are now telling you Republicans that the establishment is now satisfied in supporting Rand Paul so you should, too.

    For those of us who participated and watched as the establishment subverted Ron at every possible turn, we already know Rand is a conservative. I love when the media starts a one way information push and people regurgitate the information as if it was an original thought.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ranakin is traveling to kneel before the emperor.

    ReplyDelete