US presidential candidate rising in polls wants to end US military aid to Israel by 2028

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican presidential candidate whose popularity has recently been growing, said the United States should reduce military aid to Israel after securing expanded Abraham Accords agreements.

Ramaswamy made this statement during an interview with podcaster Russell Brand on Rumble, a platform popular with more conservative and right-wing supporters.

Ramaswamy recently pushed for the U.S. to reduce the amount of funding to allies for defense, requiring them to increase their own defense funding. He also advocated for a U.S. territorial priority in defense funding and strategic focus.

During the interview, Ramaswamy responded to a listener who asked: “Would you include Israel in this defunding tenure that you discussed with regards to the W.H.O. If you would end the war between the Ukraine and Russia, or at least stop funding it, what would you do with America’s ongoing funding of Israel?”

Ramaswamy responded, “There is no North Star commitment to any one country, other than the United States of America.”

The Republican candidate further stated that he does believe the U.S.’ relationship with Israel “has advanced American interests," however, he said he wants “to negotiate Abraham Accords 2.0” to include Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Indonesia.

Ramaswamy wants to “get Israel standing on its own two feet,” while adding that Israel is “standing by commitments we have already made.”

“I want to get Israel to the place where it is negotiated back into the infrastructure of the Middle East,” he added.

While he acknowledged the Palestinian issue, he argued, “We [the U.S.] should not be worried about holding one nation or one region hostage over one particular question relating to Palestine.”

He believes an Abraham Accords 2.0 would be “good for Israel, good for the rest of the Middle East, and good for us.”

In light of those negotiated agreements, Ramaswamy said that in 2028, "additional aid would not be necessary in order to still have the kind of stability that we’d actually have in the Middle East, having Israel more integrated in with its partners.”

The presidential candidate also praised Trump’s work in securing the Abraham Accords, but said an improved version, with additional partners “puts us in a position to say, ‘We don’t have to meddle.’”

Ramaswamy has stated in other interviews that he wants to bring the situation to a point where Middle Eastern countries don’t feel bound to a signed document between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a conversation with Bradley Martin of Jewish News Syndicate last month, Ramaswamy criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s unrestricted support for the Palestinian Authority, and the administration's failure to abide by the Taylor Force Act, which bars funding to the Palestinian Authority as long as it pays terrorists and their families, a program known as 'pay-for-slay.'