Israel’s move to gradually end American military aid is a joint step by Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump that “shows the strength of our relationship,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. The Prime Minister’s Office wrote on X: “Today, Israel has a strong and stable economy, and Israel and the United States are making the important move from aid to partnership.”
That is a report, not a mood. Netanyahu set the direction in May on CBS’s “60 Minutes”: “I want to draw down to zero the American financial support.” In 1996 Netanyahu said Israel would gradually end U.S. financial support of $1.2 billion. The Prime Minister’s Office says he did just that. Thirty years later Netanyahu says Israel is strong enough economically to gradually end military support.
JNS reported that under the 10-year memorandum of understanding signed during the Obama administration, Israel has received $3.8 billion a year in military aid since the 2019 fiscal year. That aid is due to keep arriving through the 2028 fiscal year. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Trump wants the Foreign Military Financing portion to end “as soon as possible.” Trump, Rubio told reporters, believes Israel is now “prosperous and rich enough” to buy U.S. weapons without American financing. A new memorandum with Jerusalem could also cover co-production of some weaponry. JNS reported that Trump said on Nov. 3 that he had agreed with Netanyahu to cut off U.S. military aid to the Jewish state by the end of the year.
Source and credit: @HananyaNaftali on X.