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(JTA) – Forward of the primary Republican presidential debate, the candidate with the least political expertise is making a number of the largest headlines — partly as a consequence of his views on Israel.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur who has by no means held elected workplace, is seeing rising help for his long-shot candidacy. A latest ballot positioned him neck-and-neck in second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis within the crowded GOP discipline, and the RealClearPolitics polling common locations him in third.
Each candidates nonetheless lag far behind former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner. However Ramaswamy’s rising numbers imply he’ll share the middle of Wednesday evening’s debate stage on Fox Information, and a latest memo from a pro-DeSantis Tremendous PAC referred to as on the governor to “take a sledgehammer” to Ramaswamy on the debate. DeSantis and the opposite hopefuls are anticipated to assault Ramaswamy’s many unconventional views, together with a name to ultimately finish United States help to Israel.
The Ohio-born businessman, whose web price is estimated at greater than $600 million, has primarily based his marketing campaign largely round tackling “wokeness,” a time period that has grow to be shorthand for conservative criticism of progressive values. However he’s additionally made headlines for extra outré proposals, reminiscent of a pledge to eradicate the FBI and Division of Training, a name to require civics checks for younger voters and a want to be taught “the reality about 9/11.”
Amongst his insurance policies is a name to section out U.S. help to Israel by 2028, which separates him from the largely pro-Israel Republican institution. Ramaswamy has additionally drawn consideration for criticizing a invoice signed by DeSantis that penalizes antisemitic harassment and has referred to as to repeal a legislation banning spiritual discrimination in employment.
Earlier than he turned a presidential candidate, he was concerned in a Jewish society at Yale College and benefited from a fellowship named after the brother of George Soros, the progressive Jewish megadonor.
Right here’s what to learn about Vivek Ramaswamy and the Jews.
He has floated ending U.S. help to Israel.
In June, whereas campaigning in New Hampshire, Ramaswamy advised that he could be open to ending help to Israel as “a part of a broader disengagement with the Center East.” He later walked again these feedback. However final week, he advised actor and podcaster Russell Model that he does, in reality, wish to finish U.S. help to Israel in 2028, the yr when the present U.S. dedication to supply $3.8 billion yearly to Israel expires.
Ramaswamy mentioned that call would come as Israel receives recognition from extra nations within the Center East. Israel has signed normalization offers with a number of states within the area lately, a framework referred to as the Abraham Accords, and is now pursuing a treaty with Saudi Arabia. Ramaswamy advised the Jewish Information Syndicate that he’d additionally wish to spearhead Israeli accords with Indonesia and Oman.
“Come 2028, that extra help gained’t be obligatory so as to nonetheless have the form of stability that we’d even have within the Center East by having Israel extra built-in in with its companions,” he mentioned on a present Model hosts on the video platform Rumble.
In advocating an finish to the help package deal, Ramaswamy has maybe unintentionally aligned himself with the progressive left, whose members have more and more supported conditioning or halting help to Israel as a consequence of its remedy of Palestinians. Lately, New York Occasions columnist Nick Kristof argued that the help {dollars} could be higher spent serving to poorer nations. And a few voices on the suitable have additionally referred to as for ending help to Israel, arguing that it makes Israel beholden to america.
However these views will not be shared by Ramaswamy’s most outstanding Republican rivals. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has criticized his place on help to Israel, whereas DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence have made help for Israel a cornerstone of their campaigns.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has also implored Ramaswamy to change course. Matt Brooks, the group’s CEO, wrote in an open letter that “it makes far more sense to maintain Israel within the household of nations with an curiosity in shopping for and utilizing American capabilities” — which the help package deal requires.
On different Israel-related insurance policies, Ramaswamy is extra in step with his celebration’s mainstream. Alongside supporting the Abraham Accords, he praised Trump’s choice to maneuver the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has attacked U.S. funding for packages benefiting Palestinians.
He says ‘donors’ are behind laws combating antisemitism.
Whereas Ramaswamy has referred to as antisemitism “a symptom of one thing that’s damaged in our society,” he has spoken harshly a few legislation DeSantis enacted that penalizes antisemitic acts in Florida.
In June, he tweeted that DeSantis’ signing of the legislation, which criminalizes the distribution of antisemitic flyers on personal property, was achieved “at his donors’ request.” After blowback from the conservative commentariat over his characterization of the legislation, he tweeted again about it — this time taking intention at “the censorship czars at Twitter” for appending a be aware to the tweet, which he partially blamed on “DeSantis megadonor David Sacks,” who’s Jewish.
In a subsequent interview with Jewish Insider, Ramaswamy mentioned the DeSantis invoice didn’t cross his personal “litmus take a look at” as a result of he noticed it as “a viewpoint discrimination legislation.” He added that “dangerous speech” needs to be countered with “free speech and open debate.” He pointed to a well-known Supreme Courtroom case allowing neo-Nazis to march within the closely Jewish city of Skokie, Illinois, for example of a bigotry-related challenge that was “determined appropriately.”
“I stand fiercely towards bigotry and hatred and harassing speech,” he added.
He was in a Jewish management society at Yale.
Ramaswamy advised JNS that he was one of many “key members” of Shabtai, a Jewish different to the “secret societies” at Yale College, the place he attended legislation faculty. He mentioned the society’s co-founder and rabbinical adviser, Rabbi Shmully Hecht, is a mentor of his.
Shabtai was based at Yale in 1996 and receives in depth monetary help from Israeli-American tech mogul Benny Shabtai, a serious backer of Buddies of the Israel Protection Forces. Although based on Jewish values, the society has a various membership. It additionally counts Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who himself ran for president in 2020, amongst its alumni.
Ramaswamy describes his time with Shabtai as formative, and the group has touted him as an alum. Hecht didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Volodymyr Zelensky is pictured at a welcoming ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 26, 2022. (Philip Reynaers / Pool / Photonews through Getty Photographs)
He claims Ukraine’s Jewish president is mistreating Jews.
Whereas Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has earned admirers throughout the Western world for his conduct in his nation’s struggle towards Russia, Ramaswamy isn’t impressed.
The candidate advised Jewish Insider that Zelensky — whose Jewish id has been focused by Russian propaganda — has himself mistreated Jews in Ukraine. Ramaswamy didn’t provide proof to help that declare, which echoes claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin made to justify his invasion of Ukraine final yr.
“I’d simply say that there are open questions on his remedy of spiritual minorities, together with however not restricted to Jews in Ukraine, that I believe ought to be among the many causes we must always cease in need of holding him out as some kind of hero,” the candidate mentioned. He didn’t present examples when requested, although he mentioned that Zelensky’s merging of all Ukrainian TV channels right into a single station final yr and his dissolution of political events with ties to Russia would “create the chance for” antisemitism.
Ramaswamy shouldn’t be the one Republican to criticize U.S. help for Ukraine, a stance that Trump and DeSantis have additionally questioned. He advised Jewish Insider that he sees “defending Israel” as one of many United States’ “far greater priorities.”
He needs to repeal a civil rights-era legislation forbidding spiritual discrimination in employment.
“Reverse racism is racism,” Ramaswamy lately said in an inventory of “truths” he mentioned have been elementary to his marketing campaign. To that finish, he has promised to repeal Government Order 11246, a more-than-50-year-old legislation forbidding federal contractors from participating in employment discrimination on the idea of race, gender, faith or nationwide origin. “Time to revive colorblind meritocracy as soon as and for all,” Ramaswamy wrote within the New York Publish.
Signed into legislation by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 as a part of his flurry of civil rights laws, the order has lengthy been related to affirmative motion, a longtime bugbear of the suitable. However the order has additionally been drawn on by Jewish teams to protest employer discrimination towards Jews. In 1966, the American Jewish Committee cited it to protest business banks that it mentioned have been just about excluding all certified Jews from working for them.
He reportedly paid a Wikipedia editor to take away a Soros household connection.
In 2011, Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, acquired a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New People — funding to assist immigrants and first-generation People earn school levels. The fellowship is called for the brother of progressive Jewish megadonor George Soros, a frequent goal of main Republicans who options in a spread of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Shortly earlier than he introduced his presidential marketing campaign, Ramaswamy reportedly paid a Wikipedia editor to wash his fellowship from his entry on the location. He has since gone on to criticize Soros and his household from the marketing campaign path.
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