Ron Paul Warned of Omnipotent Israel Lobby
A 1993 subscription letter appearing above Ron Paul’s signature said the “Israeli lobby plays Congress like a cheap harmonica,” warned of a “race war” and said there was a gay-led cover up of AIDS.
The letter appealed for subscriptions to Paul’s newsletter at the time, which included similar incendiary language.
Paul (R-Texas), a member of the U.S. House of Representatives now leading in some polls of likely Iowa caucus-goers, has repeatedly disavowed the language in his old newsletters, which took aim at blacks, gays and Israel. He has said that he not write his newsletters and that he did not always read them.
The subscriptions solicitation letter, obtained by Reuters on Thursday from Jamie Kirchick, an investigative journalist who in 2008 reported on the newsletters’ inflammatory content, ties the provocative language more closely to Paul than did the newsletter.
It is written in the first person, it appears above his signature, and in making some of the accusations, the appeal references what it purports to be Paul’s personal experiences.
The letter suggests, for instance, that new $100 bills distributed by the Treasury and ostensibly aimed at tracking drug money were instead aimed at keeping track of all citizens.
“I held the ugly new bills in my hands,” the letter says. “I can tell you – they made my skin crawl!”
The letter also says that “my training as a physician” – Paul is an obstetrician – “helps me see through” what he calls the “federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS.”
The letter warns of a “coming race war in our big cities” and says Paul “laid bare” what it calls “the Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica.”
A spokesman for Paul told Talking Points Memo that the candidate disavows the letter and did not write it.
Paul served in Congress from 1975 until 1988, when he ran for president on the Libertarian ticket.
He returned to his practice in 1989, but made money off the “Ron Paul Investment Letter,” which offered financial advice as well as political analysis; the 1993 letter pitches a subscription at what it says is the discounted rate of $99 a year.
Paul returned to Congress in 1997 as a Republican and previously ran for the party’s presidential nomination in 2008.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A federal agency survey reportedly asks Barnard employees if they’re Jewish
-
Opinion A Palestinian leader just gave Trump an unprecedented opening to pursue peace
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.