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Some info. on Ron Paul and his followers:

Money quote from the last one:

Why is this anti-Semitic? Because any criticism of Israel or America’s alliance with Israel is anti-Semitic? Hardly. It’s an anti-Semitic statement because it plays directly into classic anti-Semitic tropes, as regards Jews controlling the world and controlling nations through a Jewish conspiracy. Even in his response to Mr. Weigel, Mr. Paul seems to be reiterating this notion of AIPAC controlling Congress, saying, “the assumption is that AIPAC is in control of things, and they control the votes, and they get everybody to vote against anything that would diminish the war.”

Just Say No to Ron Paul.

(Not a Ruddy fan, either. Could stomach just about any of the rest, although I’m hoping Fred gets the nod.)

4) So, at the end of the day, do I still believe Ron Paul is "an anti-Semite" as I said in my initial post? I think that was an overly harsh assessment, and I apologize for it. Nonetheless, I have emailed his campaign spokesman to ask if he stands by the main quotation in question here: "By far the most powerful lobby in Washington of the bad sort is the Israeli government." That was early in the afternoon, and I have not received an answer (I also asked yesterday on the phone). It remains a troubling statement for all of the reasons I have laid out if he stands by it.

Yet you leave out the writer's far more tempered assessment of the antisemite issue in which he apologizes for his accusations of antisemitism. Yet, he does not abandon his criticism of Ron Paul otherwise. It seems to me that he's being responsible and has examined the issue pretty thoroughly.

I think it does change the issue somewhat to focus on the Israeli government's lobbying activities as opposed to the actions of AIPAC who claim to represent Israel's interest. AIPAC is questionable to me on Pali policy because I don't think AIPAC and the Israeli government are in agreement over Pali policy and that some Israelis, like Netanyahu and his Likud allies, are trying to counter AIPAC's surrender-monkey influence at Foggy Bottom and in Congress by reaching out to evangelicals for support for Israel's sovereignty. That's just my take though, I don't claim to be an expert on the differences between the two. But I don't believe they are one and the same politically and in their lobbying focus.

[SJackson flagged due to some previous interest in the issue]