Paul burned by Tea Party blowback

Sorry pal, if you can’t see it, then you are telling me what your agenda is. And it isn’t one I care to listen to. Let me put it to you this way: Our aid to Israel is symbolic. Muslims are big on symbolism. I doubt you’ll even figure it out.

Oh we're buying symbolism! Well, I'm sure all that Symbolism is of great comfort to Israelis who see their borders shrinking every time some Democrat President needs a "Land For Peace" photo-op.

What's hilarious, is that you actually believe that a foreign welfare program initiated by the great military genius, Jimmy Carter, is absolutely essential to the survival of the US and Israel. LOL!! You've got no facts, just an appeal to airy-fairy "symbolism".

If you want symbolism, try this: Announce to the Islamic World that the next time the US suffers an unprovoked mass-casualty Muslim terror attack, we'll nuke Mecca. I quote Ron Paul's former chief staffer, Dr. Gary North:

There is one target with such enormous strategic importance that for it be taken out is so unthinkable that literally everything hinges on it – not just today but permanently. This target is ground zero of a balance of power strategy that has been operational for 1400 years.

That would make the bomb more powerful than Allah.

This is theologically inconceivable for Muslims, or at least ritually unmentionable.
~~ Dr. Gary North

THAT is the only kind of "symbolism" that will win this game, permanantly. If you're not willing to engage Islam on that symbolic level, then don't make me laugh. You're just flapping your gums while pissing in the wind.

Although the term is used a lot, countries don't have 'friends', they have interests. The question is what is in our security and financial interest. Dealing with the world is a chess game with unlimited potential moves- you can't predict the future, you can only work with your interests in a way that seems strategically best.

Hmm.... I believe that you are correct, except that sometimes Nation-States do undergo long periods of time during which their administrations are at least favorably-disposed towards another country -- perhaps one which is seen as a long-term benefactor or ally. I think it would be fair to say that Israel has generally been thusly "friendly" towards the US; imperfectly so, but moreso than any other country in the region.

I don't think that you can deny that.

What I DON'T understand, is just when Conservatives started thinking that Welfare was a GOOD thing, which benefits the recipient, so long as it's foreign Welfare. Since when did Jimmy Carter's foreign policy become a bedrock of Conservatism? I missed the memo!!!

It isn’t ‘welfare’, it is bolstering a strategic interest. You don’t consider building an embassy welfare or setting up a military base as welfare. Similar strategic interest, just on a different scale.

In the examples you cite, it's still "our stuff". It's not a giveaway, it still belongs to US. (And besides -- we can still do joint training exercises with the Israeli military and so forth, whether or not we're giving their domestic government a handout).

But in the case of Foreign Aid -- as Shmuel Ben-Gad points out, US Foreign Aid has been used to prop up the counter-productive Socialism of Israeli Government interventions in the economy, as well as being used as a tool to coerce Israel into giving back "Land For Peace" to the Arabs (despite the fact that the Arabs always break their word, thus forcing Israel to give up more land for "more" peace the next time that some Democrat President needs a photo-op).

Jimmy Carter may have meant well, but Conservatives know that good intentions do not necessarily equal good programs. Looking at the effects of US Foreign Aid -- on the sclerotic Socialism which still retards sectors of the Israeli economy, at the shrinking of Israeli borders since they started accepting Foreign Aid...

...Is is possible, just possible, that the great military genius, Jimmy Carter, may have gotten this one wrong?

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