Frequently Asked Questions
 
Question: Who is Ron Paul?
 
Answer: Dr. Ron Paul is a ten term Republican member of Congress from the Fourteenth district of Texas.  Dr. Paul is a faithful husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He is an OB/GYN and an Air Force veteran who has been elected to Congress in three different Congressional districts over a span of thirty years.  He is a Constitutionalist who believes strongly in defending the entire Bill of Rights.  He believes that many of the issues of current debate can be solved by a traditional American perspective, which includes protecting individual rights, preserving a limited federal government, and encouraging personal responsibility among American citizens.
 
 
Question: What does Dr. Paul believe about faith?
 
Answer: Ron Paul is a religious Christian. He has never felt comfortable discussing his faith in the political arena, as he believes it is personal. He does not believe in merging religion and politics; they should remain separate institutions.  He strongly believes in Christian Just War theory and does not believe that the War in Iraq meets the high moral threshold required to wage just war according to the theory of Just War developed in the Christian tradition by Augustine. "Just War theory" encompasses modern political doctrines which promote the view that a specific war is just given satisfactory conditions.
 
 
Question: What does Congressman Paul believe about Israel?
 
Answer: Dr. Paul has taken a very consistent position throughout his career with regard to foreign affairs. He follows a policy in foreign affairs called non-interventionism. He does not believe we are making the United States more secure when we involve ourselves in conflicts overseas. The Constitution really doesn't authorize us to be the policemen of the world, much less to favor one side over another in foreign conflicts.
 
Stemming from this perspective, Dr. Paul opposes, in principle, the $1.6 trillion (and $5,700 per person) that Israel has received in foreign aid since 1973. He does so both because he does not believe that U.S. taxpayers should be subsidizing countries that they do not support (just as any opponent of abortion would never want to be required to pay money to the government to publicly fund an abortion procedure) and because he believes that U.S. aid to Israel is counter-productive to the safety and security of Jews in America and in Israel. 
 
Dr. Paul supports Israel's right to exist and defends Israel's right to defend its borders against its enemies. He does not support U.S. intervention in Middle East affairs and he does not support U.S. foreign aid to any country, including Israel.

 
Question: So Dr. Paul wants to withdraw funding from the Middle East. What about U.S. troops?
 
Answer: Dr. Paul was in Congress in the early 1980s when the U.S. Marines were sent in to Lebanon, and he came to the Floor before they went, when they went, and before they were killed, arguing his case against getting involved in that conflict. Ronald Reagan, when he sent the troops in, said he would never turn tail and run. Then, after the Marines were killed, he had a reassessment of the policy. When he wrote his autobiography a few years later after leaving the Presidency, he wrote:

"Perhaps we didn't appreciate fully enough the depth of the hatred and the complexity of the problems that made the Middle East such a jungle. Perhaps the idea of a suicide car bomber committing mass murder to gain instant entry to Paradise was so foreign to our own values and consciousness that it did not create in us the concern for the marines' safety that it should have. In the weeks immediately after the bombing, I believe the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off. If that policy had changed towards more of a neutral position and neutrality, those 241 Marines would be alive today."

Dr. Paul believes that there is nothing wrong with considering the fact that the U.S. does not have to be involved in every single fight.  That was the conclusion that Ronald Reagan came to, and he was not an enemy of Israel.  He was a friend of Israel, but he concluded that it is a mess over there.  Dr. Paul believes Ronald Reagan's reflection about the Middle East is correct, and that the U.S. should secure its borders and go after the terrorists through Constitutional means.
 
 
Question: Does Dr. Paul support the War on Terror?
 
Answer: Congressman Paul wrote a column in November of 2001 urging Congress to "keep an eye on its target," the target being Osama bin Laden and others responsible for the 9/11 attacks.  He warned, "In the undeclared wars of Vietnam and Korea, the enemy was known and clearly defined, even though our policies were confused and contradictory. Today our policies relating to the growth of terrorism are also confused and contradictory; however, the precise enemy and its location are not known by anyone. Until the enemy is defined and understood, it cannot be accurately targeted or vanquished."  Dr. Paul supported the U.S. military intervention into Afghanistan to find bin Laden and take him out.  

Congressman Paul has been the only member of Congress to authorize the U.S. State Department to issue such letters of marque and reprisal. As economist Fred Foldvary writes, "The Founders of the U.S. Constitution included Marque and Reprisal in addition to authorizing Congress to declare war, so that in some cases, the U.S. government would not have to engage the military and have a costly war. The risk would then be concentrated on those who chose to engage in the reprisal. This empowers private citizens to protect themselves and other Americans." Under a bill sponsored by Dr. Paul in 2008, private U.S. citizens would be able to hunt down, attack and collect assets from terrorists who have or are planning to commit hostile acts against the U.S. and its citizens.  The bill introduced by Paul is a Constitutional method of dealing with the terrorists.  The War in Iraq is an unconstitutional method of dealing with the terrorists.
 
Dr. Paul supports eradicating terrorism through Constitutional means. He supports securing U.S. borders and bringing U.S. troops home, as well as additional counter-intelligence to prevent future terrorist attacks.
 
 
Question: Why does Jews for Ron Paul exist?
 
Answer: There is a perception among average Americans that Jews are not Republicans.  Dr. Ron Paul has a significant following among Jewish voters, and this group exists to introduce Ron Paul to Jewish communities across the country.  Dr. Paul is the only choice for Jews interested in the rule of law, restricted Executive powers, separation of powers, checks and balances, the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. 
 
The Republican Jewish Coalition has decided to exclude Dr. Paul from their debate on October 16 in Washington, D.C.  They have excluded Dr. Paul simply because of his views on foreign policy.  This is unacceptable for an organization that purports to represent Jewish Republicans.  We encourage you to contact the RJC (link to: http://www.rjchq.org/ContactUS.asp) and tell them what you think of their decision.

Additionally, there is anti-Semitism that has skyrocketed recently in the U.S., according to a 2004 study by the Christian Science Monitor and a 2002 study by the Anti-Defamation League.  We believe that many well-intentioned organizations, such as the ADL and AIPAC, fuel negative perceptions about Jews by lobbying the U.S. government to support Israel and by divesting U.S. taxpayer dollars to Israel without consent of American taxpayers.  Israel would still exist as a vibrant nation without U.S. funding. 
 
The independence of local Jewish communities has been the key to Jewish survival throughout centuries. It is no accident that the founders of Western liberties and free market capitalism were generally either Jews or often quoted Jewish scriptures approvingly. Judaism stresses a person's free will and that consequences will and should follow from choices. The Jewish ideal is capitalism tempered by charity and sympathy, which only one Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul, is championing.

 

Question:  Must one be Jewish in order to be a part of Jews for Ron Paul?

Answer: No.  In fact one of those involved with Ron Paul's campaign through this group is free thinking African American activist, Richard Boddie. The fact is that anyone who has the desire to support Ron Paul for president and who also has a concern for the well being of Jewish people throughout the world is welcome here.

 
Question: Can one be a Zionist yet oppose U.S. foreign aid to Israel?
 
Answer: Absolutely!  Zionists support a Jewish homeland.  It is not required that Zionists support the government's efforts to subsidize Israel to achieve a Jewish homeland.  In a July 2006 CBS News poll, 38% of Americans thought that the U.S. was supporting Israel "too much."  Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since 1976.  One can be a Zionist and and still support the principled non-interventionist foreign policy that was championed by America's Founders.