Haaretz US correspondent Shmuel Rosner seems to be detecting a certain odor wafting from the pronouncements of a certain Crazy Uncle: Ron Paul insists: ‘Israel encourages Americans to go into Iran’.

So here is what Paul had to say about Israel and Iran:

What if Iran would “invade” Israel? (This is a somewhat strange framing of the question. The danger people seem to view in a nuclear Iran is that it will bomb Israel, not invade it.)

Paul: “Well, they are not going to. That is like saying that Iran is about to invade Mars. They have nothing, they don’t have an army or a navy or an air force. Israelis have 300 nuclear weapons, nobody would touch them… It is an impossible situation.”

So far so good. Whatever one thinks of Paul’s foreign policy analysis, assuming that Iran will not harm Israel is a legitimate position. But here is where Paul becomes more - well - kooky:

Russert showed him a quote of something he said on CNN: “Israel is dependent on us, you know, for economic means. We send them these billions of dollars and then they depend on us. They say, well, you know, we don’t like Iran. You go fight our battles. You bomb Iran for us. And they become dependent on us.”

Then the question: “who in Israel says go bomb Iran for us?”

Paul: “Well, I don’t know the individual, but we know that the leadership, you read it in the papers daily, that the government of Israel encourages Americans to go into Iran. I don’t think that’s a top secret…”

Russert: “That the government of Israel wants us to bomb Iran?”

Paul: “I don’t think there’s a doubt that they’ve encouraged us to do that. And of course the neoconservatives have been anxious to do that for a long time.”