Vivek Ramaswamy in Iowa campaign stops opposes aid package for Ukraine, Israel

OTTUMWA ― Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called on lawmakers Saturday to reject an aid package of more than $100 billion proposed by President Joe Biden to bolster Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars.

Already firmly an opponent of aid to Ukraine, Ramaswamy in a barnstorming tour of Iowa Friday and Saturday also warned against helping Israel. He said its response to attacks by the Hamas faction that rules the Palestinian Gaza Strip could set off a bigger Middle Eastern conflict ― one that could embroil the United States as well.

Biden made his call for aid in a nationally televised speech Thursday. Ramaswamy wants lawmakers to vote against the proposal, citing the high cost of previous U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and what he said are Israel's unclear military objectives in Gaza.

"I'm very worried that is going to be a disaster in the making," he told a crowd of about 50 Saturday in Ottumwa. "This is the most pro-Israel thing we can do, to elevate open debate to avoid making the same kinds of mistakes that we made after 9/11."

Ramasawy vites generational divide in explaining view of Israel

Ramaswamy, 38, has touted throughout the primary season that he is the first millennial to run for president as a Republican. Because he is much younger than his more war hawkish GOP rivals, he may perceive the conflict in Israel differently, he says.

On Saturday, he recalled his experience as a high school junior, sitting in U.S. history class watching coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in horror.

Speaking to reporters Friday, he recalled the controversial wars that followed.

"My generation was the one who were lied to systematically about the war in places like Iraq and even elements of Afghanistan," Ramaswamy told reporters Friday. "Thousands upon thousands of people of people my age, who sacrificed their lives that we won't ever get back, those are mistakes."

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/storytelling/iowa-candidate-tracker/

An Israeli assault on Gaza could mire Israel in a ground conflict, he said Saturday.

"That could be disastrous in the complexity of it," he said in Ottumwa, paralleling from his conservative perspective Democrats to the left of Biden like U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who wrote on Twitter that “we cannot bomb our way to peace.”

Ramaswamy warns of 'disastrous result' if Israel invades Gaza without 'clear objective'

Ramaswamy has said the U.S. should provide Israel with diplomatic support, intelligence and munitions. But unlike many of his other GOP rivals, he said, he does not believe an Israeli assault on Gaza will help.

Previously, in August, he called for ending U.S. financial support for Israel. He recalled the 2020 pact aimed at normalizing relations between Israel and the oil sheikdoms of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, saying an "Abraham Accords 2.0" could create diplomatic deals between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, according to ABC News.

"I want to get Israel to the place where it is negotiated back into the infrastructure of the rest of the Middle East,” the network quoted Ramaswamy as saying. “We should not be worried about holding one nation or one region hostage over one particular question relating to Palestine.”

On Saturday he told reporters his view has not changed. Israel must define its objectives and what the U.S. is expected to aid, he said.

"In absence of that clarity, we should not be providing funding against the backdrop of what I think is lining up to be a disastrous result in a ground invasion of Gaza without a clear objective," he said.

Allison Box, 61, and her husband, Mark, 64, who attended a Ramaswamy event on Friday in Fort Madison, expressed concern about the fighting in Israel.

"I'm sick about the war over there," said Allison Box, who is undecided about who to caucus for. "I'm sick of what's happening in this country with people protesting."

Her husband, who said he likes former President Donald Trump but "could be persuaded" to support Ramaswamy, questioned the dangers of the war.

"I'm worried that if you roll in there with tanks, I don't know how you roll back out without an absolute bloodbath,” he said. “To what end?"

Donald Engedretson, 76, of Middletown, said Trump had been his No. 1 choice but now he thinks he will caucus for Ramaswamy.

"He drew a pretty clear picture of both wars, and what he would do,” Engedreston said. “We all know what the politics are that are involved, especially in Israel. That's why they haven't invaded yet."

What other Republican candidates have said about supporting Israel

Other GOP presidential candidates with more foreign policy experience have expressed strong support for Israel.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, has vowed to stand with Israel “every step of the way.”

“It’s a dangerous world right now,” Haley said in New Hampshire on Oct. 15. “And this is going to get messier before it gets better.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has made foreign policy a hallmark of his campaign, blamed the George W. Bush administration, saying it gave control of Gaza to Hamas. He said Israel has “no choice but to crush Hamas.”

“We will stand with Israel when this ground assault begins and we will stand with Israel every day through the hard fighting and loss that will occur until they achieve an outright victory,” Pence told Fox News.

Other Republican candidates likewise have declared support for Israel. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., speaking in Iowa on Saturday, defended Israel's military and called it the "moral compass" as it fights Hamas, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

“If you are not loyal to your allies, you will never be lethal to your adversaries," Scott said, adding that America needs to stand with Israel.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the United States should stop funding Ukraine's war until there is a clear strategy in Israel.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a lot we even need to do militarily,” DeSantis said Oct. 16 of the war between Israel and Hamas. “We may have to provide some additional support like we’ve traditionally done, but I think mostly it’s just the moral clarity to say, ‘They don’t have to live like this.’”

Palestinian refugees displaced by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war would not be welcome in the U.S. under a Trump administration, the former president said during an Oct. 16 campaign stop in Clive.

"We aren't bringing in anyone from Gaza or Syria or Somalia or Yemen or Libya, or anywhere else that threatens our security," Trump told supporters, declaring that "if you're coming from somewhere full of people who want to kill Americans, we will not let you in."

U.S. asylum law is broken as it is, Ramaswamy, a frequent Trump ally, told reporters Saturday in Oskaloosa.

"That's not specific just to the Palestinian refugees," Ramaswamy said. "I think that we need to put a freeze on asylum to this country, at least until we have comprehensively reformed the illegal immigration crisis."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Vivek Ramaswamy calls on Congress to reject Ukraine, Israel aid package