Simon Wiesenthal Center to Ron Paul: Does Israel deserve to exist or not?

On Tuesday, the The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a direct challenge to Texas Congressman and GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul: Does Israel deserve to exist or not?

Eric Dondero, a former Paul staffer, recently issued a statement at Right Wing News saying that Paul is "most certainly Anti-Israel, and Anti-Israeli in general."

He added:

He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations. His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the America taxpayer. He sides with the Palestinians, and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs.

But the organization that supports Israel and combats anti-semitism wants to give the candidate a chance to explain himself and clarify his position:

"While the Presidential campaign is not focused on Israel, these are serious charges. We must be fair to Ron Paul and give him the opportunity to clarify his position and he must be honest with the American people before they are asked to cast their vote for the most powerful office in the world," Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean said in a statement from the headquarters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights organization.

"Clearly, anyone who holds such views--which stand in stark contradiction to more than six decades of bipartisan American support for and friendship with Israel--does not deserve to occupy the Oval Office. On the eve of 2012, Israel continues to be the Middle East's only true democracy and America's only consistent friend and ally.  It is also home to the world's largest Jewish community, some six million Jews. Is Ron Paul the first presidential candidate prepared to turn his back on the Jewish State? The American people have a right to know," the rabbis added.

The statements Dondero attributes to Paul would seem to explain some of his votes regarding Israel.

The Huffington Post reported Wednesday:

On July 30, 1997, Paul was the lone dissenter on a House-passed resolution titled "Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the terrorist bombing in the Jerusalem market." Three-and-a-half years later, he was the lone dissenter on a House-passed resolution congratulating Ariel Sharon for his election as Israeli prime minister. In July 20, 2006, he was one of eight no votes on another House-passed resolution sponsored by now-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) condemning terrorist attacks against Israel.

It might also explain some of his more controversial statements regarding Israel.

In 2009, for example, he claimed that Israel started the terrorist group Hamas, despite the group's own charter describing itself as a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Earlier in December, however, Paul told Newsmax:

We should be their friend and their trading partner. They are a democracy and we share many values with them. But we should not be their master. We should not dictate where their borders will be nor should we have veto power over their foreign policy.

 

This is not just about Israel, by the way, this is about how we should conduct ourselves with other countries around the world.

In the same interview, he said that the United States wants "to rule the world and be the saviors of the world and we are going broke in the process."

His statement to Newsmax does not appear to line up with his voting record and is in complete odds with what Dondero reported.