"And when it comes down to it, attacking him on his personality does very little. Unlike most candidates for office, you're not voting on a personality or personal beliefs; you're voting on a political and ideological platform"
If I was in USA,I wouldn't vote for either party, they are all the same. So I dont care whether he is against drugs or against bank bailouts, what we care about (those in middle-east/arabs/muslims) is his stance towards israel & foreign policy.
That's stupid. Israel is not the US. It should not be a deciding factor in voting for President. Let Israel and the middle east handle their own affairs and keep the US out of it - none of our business.
Strange, though. I have some Jewish friends who absolutely hate Ron Paul because of his stance on foreign aid to Israel and his stance on foreign policy in the rest of the middle east. Ron Paul was the only candidate not invited to the Republican Jewish Coalition debate - they purposefully and openly excluded him because of his stance towards Israel.
It's like how pro-life people don't like Paul because he wouldn't want legislation passed that bans abortion - but pro-choice people don't like him because he is personally pro-life. Gay rights people don't like him because he's not for federally defined marriage and anti-gay marriage people don't like him because he's against defining marriage at all! He can't catch a break with some of you unflinching folks with tunnel-vision, huh?
And be careful what you label as 'we' - when I worked on the Ron Paul campaign 4 years ago and organized a rally here in Ann Arbor, we had a TON of supporters coming in from Dearborn. Your view on this matter is not mainstream when it comes to how most American Arabs/Persians/etc or Muslims in general feel. At least not the majority attitude in Michigan.
So if i was voting based only on foreign policy, then ron paul would get my vote(as long as he still doesnt defend israel).
So I repeat, I dont care whether he is racist , isolationist, non-interventionist etc.. or not. From arab/middle-east perspective what we do care about is israel(pro or anti?) & US wars for oil and the puppet regimes.
"Recognizing Israel as a country is far, far different than being an ally of Israel"
recognizing israel means that the land belongs to israel and not palestine. israel is not legitimate. so if ron paul says gaza & west bank belongs to palestine while the rest including Jerusalem belongs to israel , then there is a problem there.
America is not legitimate. What state is? Government is not legitimate. Ownership is not legitimate. Palestinians are not a people and Israelis are not a people. You are a person.