LOS ANGELES: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul defended his record on Israel on Friday after a former aide said the congressman favored abolishing the nation.
“Dr Paul is the most pro-Israel candidate in this race,” campaign spokesman Gary Howard said in an emailed statement.
“He is the only leader who will stop sending tens of billions of dollars in aid and arms to her Arab enemies, cut off subsidies to companies who do business with Iran, and allow Israel to defend herself as she sees fit, without the permission and interference of the US or the United Nations.”
Although a longshot to win the Republican presidential race, Paul is a leading contender for next Tuesday’s Republican caucus vote in Iowa — the first nominating contest in the nation. Paul previously drew fire for anti-Israeli and racist, anti-gay messages contained in newsletters published under his name two decades ago.
Last Friday, a spokesman for Paul said the congressman apologized for not paying enough attention to “ghost writers” he said were responsible for the remarks in question and repeated the congressman’s disavowal of those views.
But in a lengthy statement posted earlier this week on the blog site RightWingNews.com, former congressional aide Eric Dondero said his one-time boss had long harbored stridently anti-Israel opinions that he often expressed privately.
Dondero, 49, who said he served as Paul’s senior aide in his Gulf Coast district from 1997 through 2003, denied ever seeing evidence that Paul was anti-Semitic.
“He is, however, most certainly, anti-Israel,” Dondero wrote. “He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations.
“His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the American taxpayer,” Dondero continued. “He sides with the Palestinians and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs.”
The observers’ leader, Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi, said the mission was still in its early days.
“We have 20 people who will be there (in Homs) for a long time,” he said.
Opposition activists say the government will play for time and bend the mission to its own ends. But Washington urged then to give Dabi a chance.
“We need let this mission get up and running, let them do their job and then let them give their judgement,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.
Unless it can establish its credibility by proving it has unobstructed access to all areas and is able to hear uncensored accounts, the Arab League mission may not be able to satisfy all sides that it can make an objective assessment of the crisis.
Most of the 5,000 or more people estimated by the United Nations to have been killed in Syria since March have lost their lives in Homs, to machinegun fire, sniper bullets, mortar blasts and tank shelling, or torture. (Reuters)