A US presidential candidate has said that Israel should not be receiving more aid than its neighbours and promised to cut back US funding to the Jewish state.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a long-shot Republican candidate for the president, said during an interview with Russell Brand on the right-wing social network Rumble that any additional funding Israel receives currently would be redundant.
He said: “Come 2028, that additional aid won’t be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we’d actually have in the Middle East by having Israel more integrated in with its partners,”
While Ramaswamy admitted that the close relationship between the US and Israel had benefited both countries, he added: "There’s no North Star commitment to any one country, other than the United States of America,”
He also said that he would be seeking to build on President Trump's record of dealmaking in the middle east, adding: “I want to go even further than Trump on the Abraham Accords. As president, I want to achieve the Abraham Accords 2.0 and bring in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Indonesia,” he said. “It would be good for everyone.”
Last month, Ramaswamy also told JNS that he wants to reach a point where other Middle Eastern countries can normalize relations with Israel formally irrespective of a signed document with the Palestinians.
“I want to get these countries past the Palestinian situation being a hold-up to talks of a broader peace,” he said.