Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s newsletters vilify Israel, according to a major U.S. political magazine. One implied that Israel was responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The New Republic found vitriolic language toward Jews, blacks and homosexuals after sifting through the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman’s newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s. “The newsletters display an obsession with Israel; no other country is mentioned more often in the editions I saw, or with more vitriol,†the magazine’s James Kirchick wrote. “A 1987 issue of Paul’s Investment Letter called Israel ‘an aggressive, national socialist state,’ and a 1990 newsletter discussed the ‘tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise.’ “
Regarding the implication that the Mossad may have been behind the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, Paul wrote, “Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little.â€
Jesse Benton, Paul’s campaign spokesman, told The New Republic that Paul had given “various levels of approval” to the statements presented in the newsletter.
“A lot of [the newsletters] he did not see. Most of the incendiary stuff, no,” Benton said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
