US President Donald Trump says the United States will end its annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year. He claims he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed on the cutoff months ago, but Netanyahu’s office has not confirmed an end-of-year cutoff.
Trump put the yearly figure at about $4 billion. The real figure under the current deal is $3.8 billion a year, and that deal runs until 2028.
What Trump said
Trump made the remarks in a phone interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the morning of the US midterm elections. He said Israel no longer needs the money.
“They’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it, and we won’t be paying Israel,” he said. He added that Netanyahu himself raised the idea, and that the two had been talking about it for a couple of years.
Trump also said the US would still help Israel if it needed it, and that Israel could still buy American weapons, but would have to pay for them itself.
He framed the move partly as an answer to critics in the US. He named Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed Becomes First Muslim US Senator as Democrats Win Midterms, saying he did not want Republicans to suffer attacks over aid to Israel when Israel is not in need.
What is not confirmed
No joint announcement has been made, and Netanyahu’s office has not confirmed that an end-of-year cutoff was agreed. CNN said it had reached out to Netanyahu’s office and the White House for details.
Israel’s defence establishment was caught by surprise. Haaretz reported that the military had not been informed, and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot criticised Netanyahu, saying Israel’s security establishment learned of the change through the media, at the same time as the public.
Trump did not explain how the claimed agreement would affect the existing aid framework, or whether the two governments had reached a formal arrangement to end payments before the current deal expires.
The current aid deal
The US gives Israel $3.8 billion of military aid a year under a 10-year memorandum of understanding worth $38 billion in total. It began in 2018 and is set to expire in 2028.
Netanyahu has spoken openly about ending US military aid, but never on such a short timeline. In January he told The Economist he wanted to phase it out over the coming decade. In May he told CBS that he wanted to draw it down to zero over the next ten years, starting now.
Formal talks on a new agreement to replace the memorandum began in May, but it is not clear if any framework is in place.
What happens next
The key question is whether Congress, which controls appropriations, will go along with an early cutoff. The current deal runs to 2028, and ending it early would need political and legal steps that Trump has not spelled out.
For now, the story is what Trump said, not a done deal. Until Netanyahu’s office or the White House confirms a formal agreement, the end-of-year cutoff remains a claim, not a settled decision.
Read more of our Politics coverage, including US Strikes Iran’s Qeshm Island After Iranian Missile Fired at US Jet, Officials Say.
Comments (0)
Be respectful — comments are moderated.