'Ron Paul wishes Israel didn't exist'

Former senior aide to Republican presidential hopeful says that while Paul is not an anti-Semite, he believes Israel is 'more trouble than it's worth'

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul negates Israel's right to exist, Eric Dondero, who served as a senior aide to the 76-year-old Texas congressman for over 12 years, said on Monday.

In a blog posted in Rightwing News, Dondero said that while Paul was, in his opinion, neither a racist nor an anti-Semite, he is very much anti-Israel.

"I worked for the man for 12 years (and) I never heard a racist word expressed towards Blacks or Jews come out of his mouth… I can categorically say that I never heard anything out of his mouth, in hundreds of speeches I listened to over the years, that could be called, anti-Semite," he writes.

But according to Dondero, the elderly congressman "wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all."

The congressman's former aide insists in his blog that Paul expressed the controversial sentiment "numerous times in our private conversations."

Paul's view, he said, "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."

Following Dondero's statement, Executive Director of Republican Jewish Coalition Matthew Brooks said that the former senior aide's blog "simply confirmed what we already know – Paul is against the Jewish State of Israel."

Brooks had previously called Paul's views on Israel "misguided and extreme." He was also excluded from a Republican presidential candidates' panel hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition in November.