Candidate for the US Republican presidential nomination Vivek Ramaswamy. Image: Wikipedia

Biotech entrepreneur and 2024 US Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday reversed course on his proposal to cut American aid to Israel after weeks of criticism from his fellow GOP contenders.

In an interview with Israel Hayom published on Tuesday, Ramaswamy said he would even consider increasing US aid to the Jewish state.

“So, 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. But part of the benefit is — it runs through the US industrial base; a lot of that work is done here in the United States of America,” Ramswamy said. “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.”

Regarding potentially cutting US aid, the presidential candidate said, “At some point in time, if Israel comes to us as a true friend, as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has done in the past and says we don’t need this, then great, then that’s a point at which we can reevaluate. But we’re not going to cut the aid until Israel tells us that.”

Ramaswamy added that if instead Israel asked for more aid, that would be “very reasonable … as long as it’s running through the US.”

Most of the $3.8 billion in aid that the US gives to Israel each year is then used to purchase US-manufactured arms like the F-35 fighter jet.

Ramaswamy, who is currently polling as a distant third nationally in the Republican primary behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had been slammed by GOP rival Nikki Haley in recent weeks for saying that he wanted to phase out US aid to Israel when the current 10-year $38 billion aid package expires in 2028.

With no prior experience in politics, Ramaswamy has positioned himself as an outsider willing to take heterodox positions on foreign policy. In Monday’s interview, he said that while he wouldn’t object to an Israeli strike on Iran, he ruled out any US involvement.

“We will not stop Israel from defending itself to the fullest capacity,” he said. “I think it’s really important that the US not put our own men and women on the line in a war with Iran, when in fact, there’s no reason for us to be in that kind of war now.”

Ramaswamy also said that, as president, he would end “the quiet legitimization of the Palestinian Authority” and not “embrace this antisemitic foreign policy trope that we have to hold Israel hostage over the Palestinian question.”

At the first Republican primary debate last week, Ramaswamy’s fellow contenders for the GOP presidential nomination criticized his lack of experience and unconventional foreign policy views.

“He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel,” Haley said of Ramaswamy. “You don’t do that to friends … you have no foreign policy experience, and it shows.”

Ramaswamy in an interview with comedian Russell Brand earlier this month had said that with him as president, there would be “no North Star commitment to any one country” except the US.

“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,” Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy has since clarified that he wants an “Abraham Accords 2.0” to more fully integrate Israel into the region so that US military aid to Israel might no longer be necessary.

The Abraham Accords were a series of historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab states brokered with the help of the former Trump administration.