Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wants the Israeli Defense Forces to behead the top 100 leaders of Hamas and line their heads up on stakes along the Israel-Gaza border.
“I would love nothing more than for the IDF to put the heads of the top 100 Hamas leaders on stakes and line them up on the Israel-Gaza border as a sign that October 7, 2023 will never happen again,” Ramaswamy said Saturday in remarks to the Republican Jewish Coalition.
He added that Israel should then “build the border defenses of the future” but that all of those actions are up to Israel.
“That is Israel’s decision to make, not ours,” Ramaswamy said. “That is what David Ben-Gurion would tell Israel to do. That is what George Washington would tell the United States to do.”
Ramaswamy’s comment comes as he has faced criticism for his views on Israel in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
He has called for the U.S. to avoid military aid to Israel and said that “‘Destroy Hamas’ is not on its own a viable or coherent strategy.”
The 38-year-old entrepreneur also criticized fellow Republicans for “selective moral outrage” about Hamas’ attack and alleged that Republicans calling for a strong response from the U.S. are driven by donor money and personal financial interests.
“It is shameful. And I think that there are, frankly, financial and corrupting influences that lead them exactly to speak the way they do, that’s just the hard truth,” he said in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
Ramaswamy, however, has said critics who dub him anti-Israel are “dead wrong.”
“Many of you have heard my policy views described by the press as ‘unfriendly to Israel,’” Ramaswamy said Saturday. “Some have even described me and my views as ‘anti-Israel.’ That’s dead wrong.”
But many online dubbed the “beheading” comments out of place for a presidential campaign.
“Sure, that’s a normal thing for a presidential candidate to advocate for,” wrote one user.
The quote even shocked Piers Morgan, who, in an interview set to broadcast, called it “medieval barbarism.”
According to a RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Ramaswamy is in fourth place for the Republican nomination—behind former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
