Everyone knows about this already, sorry, it came out yesterday: the new senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, has done the unimaginable and said that the U.S. should cut aid to Israel because we have a financial crisis. Notice everyone piling on in this Haaretz piece, from J Street saying the idea is “alarming” to the Jewish arms of the Republican and Democratic parties slamming Paul as well.
Just a Kentucky senator, yes, with an aqua buddha in his past (mine is aubergine) but this is an important moment. He is responding to the grassroots opinion, Paul has to know that attitudes toward the Jewish state across the U.S. are shifting. In this respect, the U.S. is the most conservative country in the world. Last night on the News Hour Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch said that if Mubarak cracks down on the demonstrators, the U.S. should put its aid package “on the table.” Israel has been cracking down on demonstrators for ages, and the aid package has never been on the table…
