Rand Paul: “I am a strong supporter of Israel. They remain one of our staunchest allies, and we must support them. However, the…”

“I am a strong supporter of Israel. They remain one of our staunchest allies, and we must support them. However, the Israelis have called for a curtailment of U.S. aid for more than 20 years in order to ensure their own military and economic independence. In 2013, Naftali Bennet, who was then serving as Israel's Minister of Economics and as the leader of the Home Party said, ``Today, U.S. military aid is roughly 1 percent of Israel's economy. I think, generally, we need to free ourselves from it. We have to do it responsibly . . . but our situation today is very different from what it was 20 and 30 years ago.'' Additionally, on July 10, 1996, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before a Joint Session of Congress, ``I believe we can now say that Israel has reached childhood's end, that it has matured enough to begin approaching a state of self-reliance . . . . We are going to achieve economic independence [from the United States].''”