Posted on 08/30/23
| News Source: JPost
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will consider enlarging US military aid to Israel if elected, he told Israel Hayom on Wednesday after he previously said that the aid should be cut.
He told Israel Hayom that US military aid to Israel is actually beneficial for both nations.
"The reality is that the three billion in aid that we give to Israel is a tiny drop in the bucket for the US military budget," he said. "A lot of that work is done here in the United States of America. It's actually accretive to the US and our interests. And so, in a certain way, it would be silly for us to want to skimp or cut that when in fact, it's not just in Israel's interest, but that's in our own interest, even nationally, in building our industrial base."
He added that the US won't cut the aid until Israel says it doesn't need it anymore.
The Republican candidate sparred with fellow candidate Nikki Haley in a debate last week over the issue of aid. At the time, Ramaswamy said it was important to cut the aid because the relations between Israel and the US weren't a "business relationship" but a friendship.