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EXCLUSIVE: Ron Paul Shocks Campaign Staff With New Position On Israel

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul revealed this week that he would support moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a surprising position that contradicts conventional wisdom about Paul's stance toward the Jewish state.

Paul first made this position known Wednesday night, during a private meeting with evangelical leaders interested in helping the Texas Congressman reach out to the conservative Christian community.

According to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider, the leaders started off the meeting by asking Paul whether he would sign an Executive Order to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major policy objective for Israeli hardliners and many leaders in the Christian Right.

"The real issue here is not what America wants, but what does Israel want," Paul told evangelical leaders, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider. "If Israel wants their capital to be Jerusalem, then the United States should honor that."

"How would we like it if some other nation said 'We decided to recognize New York City as your capital instead, so we will build our embassy there?'" he added.

Even Paul's senior campaign aides were surprised by his response.

"We were floored," senior advisor Doug Wead told Business Insider. "It sounds like pure Ron Paul, but it still caught us off guard...If someone would have asked him that in a national debate, I suppose it would have popped right out, but nobody did!"

Wead added that Paul's position "makes sense after the fact," noting that the candidate has frequently emphasized Israel's sovereignty.

Still, Paul's stance will likely come as a surprise to GOP leaders, most of whom view Paul's non-interventionist foreign policy ideas — and particularly his stance towards Israel — as his greatest weakness. The septuagenarian Congressman has largely been snubbed by the right-wing Jewish community, and was even excluded from a December presidential candidates' forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition because of his "misguided and extreme" foreign policy views.

"I appreciate what he said about Israel — as a matter of fact, I was pleasantly surprised," Brian Jacobs, a Texas pastor who attended Wednesday's meeting, told Business Insider. "It helped answer a lot of questions that I had."


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Stockton Should boost its Image with Jobs

Stockton city leaders met for a town hall meeting with residents, and together they discussed the ongoing financial challenges that are facing the city.

The meeting lasted more than two hours, and Mayor Ann Johnston and City Manager Bob Dies answered the questions posed by the 100 or so attendees. They even waited out a protest by representatives of the Occupy movement.

Throughout the meeting, city officials stressed the steps being taken now do not mean the city is heading to bankruptcy. In fact, the AB 506 process is designed to avoid bankruptcy. However, they presented three options for a balanced budget: deep cuts to personnel and salaries, a successful AB 506 negotiation, or bankruptcy. The city has until July 1 to adopt a balanced budget.

Should the city look to further impose cuts on employees, the city would have to cut 64 police officers, close two fire stations, and instill other cuts. In the opinion of the city leaders, those cuts are both unsafe and unwise.

Meanwhile Barack Obama, Overstays his Welcome in Afghanistan.

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Second tremor hit Western Mexico

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Two large earthquakes struck western Mexico, shaking buildings as far away as the capital and sending people rushing out of offices onto the streets, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no reports of major damage after the first of the two tremors.

The USGS said the first quake on Wednesday evening in the western state of Michoacan had a magnitude of 6.5 -- and was recorded at a depth of 12.4 miles.

The second quake, in the early hours of Thursday off Baja California, was stronger at a magnitude of 6.9 and shallower at a depth of 6.2 miles.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, writing on his Twitter account after the first quake, said there were no initial signs of serious damage.

Key services in the capital, including its subway system and the international airport, were operating normally.

"There was a nasty crunching sound in my bathroom and everything moved," said Adela Arceo, who was looking after two young children in the central Roma neighborhood of Mexico City.

There were no initial reports of casualties.

Emergency services in Michoacan and in the neighboring state of Guerrero, which has been hit by a series of recent quakes, reported no major problems on Wednesday.

"You could feel it, but there's no major damage. There are no reports, no emergency calls," said Agustin Lule, a spokesman for fire services in Uruapan, a town in Michoacan near the epicenter.

Reuters reporters in coastal areas of Guerrero and neighboring Oaxaca state said there was no damage.

The Honolulu-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it had issued no tsunami warning, but staff oceanographer David Walsh noted the quake was close to water, big enough and potentially deep enough to cause one.

The two quakes followed two tremors that jolted Mexico within the past month. A 7.4 magnitude quake struck on March 20, damaging hundreds of buildings in the southwest. That was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

Earlier on Wednesday, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia, raising fears of a huge tsunami like the one that battered the Indian Ocean rim in 2004, but authorities said there were no reports suggesting a major threat.

(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg, Simon Gardner, Krista Hughes and Ana Isabel Martinez; writing by Dave Graham; editing by Ron Popeski)

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