Ramaswamy: Cut Off Aid to Israel After 2028
Presidential hopeful has repeatedly shifted position on aid to Jewish state
Vivek Ramaswamy, who has skyrocketed to third place in the Republican presidential primary by campaigning as a millennial candidate with fresh ideas, is facing a new hurdle as he attempts to navigate the fraught debate over U.S. military aid to Israel.
The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur and self-proclaimed political "outsider," has raised eyebrows for his shifting positions on U.S. military aid to Israel, which he now says he wants to cut off in 2028.
While anti-Israel activists have long lobbied for ending U.S. military funding to the Jewish state, Ramaswamy said he supports Israel’s continued security.
The candidate’s stance on the military aid—$3 billion a year, which Israel is largely required to spend on U.S.-manufactured equipment—has changed several times over the past few months. This week, he told the Washington Free Beacon that he supports ending the military funding once the current package passed by Congress expires in 2028, arguing that the aid will be unnecessary after he successfully negotiates new peace treaties between Israel and its Arab neighbors during the first year of his presidency.
"If we’re successful, the true mark of success for the U.S., and for Israel, will be to get to a 2028 where Israel is so strongly standing on its own two feet, integrated into the economic and security infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East, that it will not require and be dependent on that same level of historical aid or commitment from the U.S.," Ramaswamy told the Free Beacon on Saturday.
Ramaswamy describes his Middle East plan as "Abraham Accords 2.0," an expansion of the historic Trump-era deals cementing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.
He said he would broker expanded agreements between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and Indonesia, and believes he "can deliver that in my first year in office."
"Why is that important? That integrates Israel into the economic and security infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East, in a way that hasn’t happened because Israel has been wrongfully held hostage over a complex historical Palestine question, from being able to integrate itself," he said. "Because Israel was isolated, that required years of the U.S. having to stand for our democratic ally, including in the form of military aid to Israel."
Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Indonesia are often discussed as the most likely candidates for expanding the Abraham Accords, but there have been some obstacles to the negotiations. Saudi Arabia is reportedly requesting a civilian nuclear program in exchange for open diplomacy with Israel, while Oman recently passed a law banning official relations with the Jewish state.
Ramaswamy also clarified in an email to the Free Beacon that he would support continued aid to Israel after 2028 if his plan is ineffective.
"The big difference is to see if the Abraham Accords 2.0 is indeed successful at getting Israel to a stronger place than it is today while relying on U.S. aid," he said in an email last week. "If it is, then that is the best-case scenario for all; if it’s not, then the aid will continue."
But his position has drawn criticism from pro-Israel conservatives and skepticism from some Gulf experts.
"It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve been doing this for almost three decades now," Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Free Beacon.
"Even if we get these [other countries into the Abraham Accords], we still have a bunch of enemies with technology" in the region, such as Iran, said Abdul-Hussain.
Conservative pundit Mark Levin questioned Ramaswamy’s position in a message to the candidate on Twitter.
"We need Israel as a counterweight to Iran, Syria, terrorist organizations, etc. You seem oblivious to America’s need to have strong and reliable allies throughout the world to help our own security needs," wrote Levin. "I’m all for outsiders. But, respectfully, you need to bone up a bit on this subject."
Ari Hoffman, a conservative radio host, also weighed in on Twitter, saying Ramaswamy’s "comments on Israel prove he has no understanding of the Middle East & likely shows he has little understanding of U.S. foreign policy."
Ramaswamy has acknowledged that he is a newcomer to some of these foreign policy debates. He noted that he "didn’t know much of this six months ago," in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt about Taiwan this month, adding that the "only difference between me and the other candidates is I’m the only one actually willing to admit that."
This could also explain his shifting positions as he attempts to grapple with these issues on the national stage.
Ramaswamy's latest stance on Israeli military funding comes two months after the candidate told the Free Beacon that he supported continuing aid to Israel. The Free Beacon asked Ramaswamy to clarify his position in June after he was videotaped telling a small campaign gathering that he would consider ending military financial support to the Jewish state.
"That's not what I said," Ramaswamy told the Free Beacon, when asked if he supported cutting aid to Israel at the time. "When someone asked about aid to Israel, I said we can’t narrowly criticize our financial aid to Israel in isolation when our other policies of engagement in the Middle East have indirectly contributed to the threats that Israel faces."
"Just to clarify, are you in favor of the aid or no?" the Free Beacon replied to Ramaswamy.
"Yes," he responded.
Earlier in June, Ramaswamy told a gathering in New Hampshire that he would draw back the foreign aid as "part of a broader disengagement with the Middle East," according to video of the event obtained by the Free Beacon.
"I would not do that as an isolated policy," Ramaswamy said at the time. "I would do it as part of also making sure that we're not leaving other people we've also propped up, from Saudi Arabia to even Iran, in other ways, over the years, right? So it's got to be part of a comprehensive strategy."
Ramaswamy during an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club in late June denied again that he supported cutting off aid to Israel.
"You told a voter that you were open to ending foreign aid to Israel. Then it was reported that it was a misunderstanding," said host Charlamagne.
"Yeah, that was a false reporting, actually," said Ramaswamy.
"Oh, you never said that?" asked Charlamagne.
"No, I did not," said Ramaswamy.
Published under: 2024 Election , Foreign Aid , Foreign Policy , Free Beacon , GOP Primary , Israel , Vivek Ramaswamy
Antisemitism embeds itself more firmly in the heart of the Democrat party
American Jews are overwhelmingly Democrat in orientation. They’re also, sensibly, extremely worried about antisemitism. The problem is that these same Democrat Jews are blind to the fact that antisemitism is the growing rot at the heart of their own party.
There are lots of reasons Jews are leftists. The main reason, probably, is that American Jews are dedicated to college degrees. There were already jokes in the 1930s showing a lady smiling down at a brand new baby swaddled in a white blanket and asking, “So, what is it? A doctor or a lawyer?” For American Jews, the journey from shtetl to tenement to the middle class was a short one if you could see your son (and, later, your daughter) through college. They are one of the most credentialed religious groups in America.
Jews are also leftists because (probably thanks to college) many of them have bought into the fraud that the Nazis were right-wing. Of course, the National Socialists were from the left. One of the great party tricks of the second half of the 20th century was how communists in America and Europe manage to indoctrinate the world into believing that fascism was a right-wing ideology.
Image: NEA headquarters, located three minutes from the White House. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid. CC BY-SA 4.0.
And, of course, there were the legions of Jewish red diaper babies in the first half of the 20th century. These were Jews from Russia who, having suffered horrendous, murderous antisemitism at the hands of Tzarist forces, assumed that, if communists hated the Tzar, they must be friends to the Jews. Bernie Sanders comes from that class. These are committed leftists who, having drunk the Kool-Aid, turn a blind eye to the Soviet Union’s antisemitism, as well as the Nazi’s socialist Holocaust.
Bred on fallacies from communists and colleges (but I repeat myself), America’s Jews fear “the right.” That’s why, as of 2021, 68% of observant Jews and 77% of non-observant Jews are Democrats, for a total of 76%.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that observant Democrat Jews tend to be more form than substance. They are rigorous about the High Holy Days, send their kids to Hebrew school, and like to throw around Yiddish phrases. However, their values are formed by the Democrat party platform and their college curricula rather than by the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) or the Talmud (the main and ancient rabbinic text interpreting the Torah and creating rules for daily life).
So, in sum: For myriad reasons, 76% of American Jews hew left and fear the right, but all Jews fear murderous anti-Jewish hatred. The problem is that 76% of American Jews think that hatred comes only from conservative Christians and their fellow travelers on the right. They’re embarrassed to admit that it also comes from Islam (it lies at the heart of the Koran) and are ignorant of the fact that Karl Marx put it at the heart of socialism, where it created the Holocaust, Soviet programs, and, in America, the National Education Association.
Yup, I’m finally at the story that led to this post. First, let’s talk about the National Education Association, which is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents taxpayer-funded “educators” and staff from kindergarten up. It’s also fanatically Democrat, sending millions every year to Democrat politicians and initiatives while reserving statistically insignificant amounts for Republicans. It just had its annual convention, where this happened:
For several years, Jewish issues — more specifically, anti-Jewish issues — have been brought up by NEA members from Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere. There is a tiny Jewish caucus within the NEA, but it is relatively inactive. Unlike past years, the Jewish caucus was able to introduce some pro-Israel and pro-Jewish resolutions.
The delegates voted to support the following new business items:
NBI 3: NEA will use existing print and digital communication tools to educate members and the general public about the history, culture, and struggles of Palestinians.
NBI 7: The NEA will recognize Palestinian-American students and members by using existing digital communications to highlight their personal narratives and stories.
And the NEA delegates rejected (albeit narrowly) the following new business item:
NBI ??: The NEA will post the “blue square” emoji on its website during the month of January in honor of Holocaust Remembrance, to show that NEA stands against hate towards Jewish people.
A friend of mine constantly says that Jews are building their own cattle cars. Looking at the antisemitism at the heart of the Democrat party, I’m very sorry to say this, but she’s right.
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