It’s not only my friends on the left who are concerned about the plight of the innocent civilians in Gaza. Former Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican revered by non-interventionists for opposing war and speaking out against some of the actions of the Israeli government, is slamming those in the U.S. who are evincing indifference to the suffering of the Gazans.
Worse than indifference, at least one member of Congress even indicated that he supports the starvation of the Gazans. That’s contemptible.
Here is Dr. Paul speaking out, during a podcast with Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
“You know, summarizing what you say, about the hostages, ‘release the hostages,’ the way I would phrase that, ‘do what we say or these are the results, we’re gonna starve, starve the little ones.’ It’s hard for me to accept that as a basic principle, so the people in this country surely ought to be at least thoughtful enough to look at both sides of this. To look at pictures like that and what’s going on — the truth is, what happens in these countries, and a lot of bad things happen, it happens with U.S. support, and that means morally we are responsible.”
Paul was reacting to a post on X by Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican of Florida. In that post, Fine wrote:
“Release the hostages. Until then, starve away.” And then he added: “This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.”
Now look, I have seen it suggested that not all the images of Gazan children starving that have been circulated in the media are accurate. But isn’t that beside the point? We know from multiple credible accounts that there is a serious risk of famine in the Gaza Strip — that the people there are in desperate shape. And according to Fine, they should all starve because Hamas is still keeping hostages?
It should go without saying, but that is an appalling moral outlook. If you are willing to starve thousands and thousands of innocent people in order to punish terrorists hiding among them, where does your penchant for collective punishment and retaliatory violence end? We obviously would not apply so logic to ourselves: Evil actions on the part of our government would not justify the deliberate starvation of thousands of American people.
And as Dr. Paul points out in his video, it’s not as if anyone is asking the American taxpayers to forcibly contribute to the aid of Gazans: What we are saying is that aid organizations should be allowed to operate in the Gaza Strip. Israel has bombed and bombed and bombed Gaza, crippled its infrastructure, and killed thousands of people. At this point, the government of Israel does bear some moral responsibility for the suffering of the people there. The U.S. government cannot take the position that Israel is free to blockade the strip and prevent willing aid organizations from distributing food to the people there. It’s unconscionable.
I share the goal of destroying Hamas. But the destruction of Hamas cannot come at any cost. This cost is too high — especially when the U.S. government will be treated as morally complicit, given our ironclad support of Israel.
Ron Paul is not the only Republican who thinks Randy Fine’s stance on starvation in Gaza is evil. So too does a man named Aaron Baker.
Baker writes on X: “I do NOT support starving children. I do NOT support punishing citizens for having the worst government in existence.”
Baker is a pro-Trump, pro-Second Amendment, pro-free-speech, pro-border, pro-capitalism, America First Republican, and he is running in the Republican primary against Randy Fine in 2026. Floridians should pay attention to him.
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.
