Paul Softens Opposition on Israel Foreign Aid
By Jonathan Broder
Roll Call Staff
Dec. 6, 2012, 11:37 a.m.
Sen. Rand Paul, an outspoken opponent of all foreign aid, is ready to make an exception for Israel.
The freshman Kentucky Republican, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, still says the United States should reduce its spending by cutting foreign assistance to countries such as Egypt and Libya, where U.S. diplomatic missions have been attacked. He also wants to halt aid to Pakistan until it releases from jail a local doctor who helped U.S. forces in the operation that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
But Paul has changed his tune on aid to Israel, which he once said should not be spared from his call for an end to foreign aid.
“What I’ve said is that we can’t continue to spend a trillion dollars we don’t have, so we have to look everywhere for cuts, and foreign aid is one of those areas,” he said Tuesday. “Within foreign aid, I would start with cutting those who don’t appear to be our allies. The one thing you can say about Israel is there doesn’t seem to be any mobs burning our flag there.”
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