Pharmaceutical executive and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said in an interview on Tuesday that he would not support sending any aid to Israel, at least without a “specific plan of action with clearly defined objectives” that align with U.S. interests.
In an interview with Axios, he said that Israel should make its own decisions about how it defends its “national self-existence,” and that he does not endorse financial support, but instead that the U.S. should “provide a diplomatic Iron Dome for Israel.”
“And that’s it,” he said. “No money.”
The presidential candidate added that if Israel has a “specific plan of action with clearly defined objectives” that align with U.S. interests, “then that’s a reasonable conversation to have.”
Ramaswamy claimed that Israel was not “asking us for military aid or money right now either.”
Israel requested $10 billion in emergency military assistance following the unprecedented Palestinian Islamic terrorist attacks where Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis, injured 3,000+ more, and took hundreds of hostages. It is the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
President Joe Biden called on Congress to provide the funding, which in part will help replenish Israel’s Iron Dome, which it uses to shoot down missiles and rockets that are fired at Israeli civilians. More than 7,000 rockets have been fired at Israel over the last two weeks and there are fears that if Hezbollah enters the war from Israel’s north, it could launch any number of the estimated 150,000 rockets that it has in its arsenal.
The U.S. is currently positioning two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups in the region — which each costs millions of dollars per day to operate — along with readying thousands of soldiers to be on standby orders in a clear effort to deter Iran and its terrorist proxy groups from widening the conflict. The U.S. is also deploying numerous missile defense systems to protect U.S. interests and Israel from rocket, missile, and drone attacks from those very groups.
Ramaswamy’s remarks come after he said late last week that it would be “potentially catastrophic” for Israel to launch a ground operation inside Gaza.
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“‘Destroy Hamas’ is not on its own a viable or coherent strategy,” he stated. “Instead, Israel is likely to invite attacks from Hezbollah in the north, which would almost surely draw the U.S. into a prolonged all-out regional war in the Middle East that won’t advance American interests.”
At the time of the statement, he said that “further U.S. support is contingent on Israel identifying clear objectives for success in Gaza and a coherent plan for what comes after toppling Hamas, even if Israel is successful in doing so.”
Ramaswamy, whose campaign has fallen to within one point of former President Mike Pence’s campaign in recent months, has taken fire from both Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and Fox News host Sean Hannity over his remarks about Israel in recent months.
The Daily Wire has reached out to the Ramaswamy campaign for comment.