President Donald Trump said the United States will stop providing $4 billion in annual aid to Israel in 2027. He told Fox News that Washington would continue selling arms to its Middle East ally.
We've already agreed that by the end of the year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it,
He said Washington would keep supplying arms and would come to Israel's aid if it were needed.
You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,
Trump cast the arrangement as a swap, not a gift. He said he and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had settled the matter months ago, after Netanyahu came to him with the idea.
Israel doesn't need the money, Trump said, and the sum is a large one for the United States to carry.
He made the announcement in a telephone interview with Fox News on midterm Election Day.
Aid to Israel had become a talking point for Democratic candidates, he said, naming Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan US Senate candidate and a vocal critic of Israel.
El-Sayed, speaking to reporters at a polling site in Ann Arbor, offered a wry reply.
Even a broken clock can be right twice a day,
The memorandum runs to 2028
In 2016, President Barack Obama signed a security agreement that promised Israel's military $38 billion over 10 years, or $3.8 billion a year.
What Trump calls for against what is on paper
Trump's announcement
Payments to stop
$4bn a year
- Aid ends by the close of the year, Trump said
- Arms sales continue
- Netanyahu raised the idea, Trump said
2016 memorandum
Signed by Barack Obama
$3.8bn a year
- $38 billion over 10 years
- Not due to expire until 2028
- Replacement talks opened in May
Trump put the annual aid at $4 billion, though the 2016 agreement sets the figure at $3.8 billion. The memorandum of understanding runs until 2028. Trump said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to stop the payments by the end of 2026.
Since its founding in 1948, Israel has received more than $300 billion in inflation-adjusted economic and military assistance, the largest amount of US backing provided to any country, the Council on Foreign Relations said.
- MaySuccessor talks open The two countries begin formal talks on an arrangement to replace the 2016 memorandum.
- 20 OctoberAlabama visit An Israeli Defence Ministry delegation discusses future purchases with US Army Security Assistance Command officials.
- Election DayTrump announces In a Fox News phone interview, Trump says the aid will stop by the end of the year.
- End of the yearClaimed cutoff Trump says payments to Israel stop.
- 2028Memorandum expires The current memorandum of understanding is not due to end until 2028.
Opposition says Israel heard it on television
The fact that Israel's defense establishment is learning of a shift in our strategic relationship through the media, at the same time as the Israeli public, shows just how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct is,
Eisenkot went further on the prime minister himself.
He can no longer be trusted and must be replaced.
Yair Golan, a leader in the opposition bloc, said ending US military aid would severely harm Israeli security while the country was engaged in wars on several fronts.
The burden of funding defense needs at such a critical juncture will fall entirely upon the Israeli public,
By Tuesday evening in Israel, several hours after Trump spoke, Netanyahu and his office had said nothing. The prime minister published two social media posts, both about unsubstantiated claims of foreign interference in Israeli elections, not the aid.
Netanyahu had told Israelis to expect it
The prime minister had laid the groundwork. In January, he told The Economist he planned to reduce American military aid over a 10-year period and that work was under way on the change. In May, he told CBS he wanted to end US support entirely.
In June he said Israel had to break free of dependency and build an independent armaments network of its own.
Last month he told Israeli media that the tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defence budget would not keep coming.
You'd better prepare yourselves and get used to the idea that this will not continue,
That is because America has changed, not because Israel has changed. It will end. It is only a matter of time.
A 12 billion shekel hole in the budget
Israel's Finance Ministry first learned of the plan at Trump's announcement, Channel 12 reported. Talks with US counterparts were still under way, and the news surprised Israel, a senior defence official told Israeli public broadcaster KAN.
Shaul Amsterdamski, an economic commentator at KAN, estimated that a January cutoff would create a 12 billion shekel ($3.8 billion) annual shortfall in the defence budget. The government could make up the sum through tax increases, spending reductions or quicker growth that generated more tax revenue, he said, and considered higher taxes the most likely option.
Officials familiar with Israel's security talks in Washington told Channel 12 they were seeking clarity on how to fund fighter jets under existing signed contracts, and which currency Israel would use to pay for them.
Officials were seeking to clarify whether Trump intended to end funding at year’s end or have the countries gradually adopt a new defence cooperation arrangement, Channel 12 reported.
KAN reported that an Israeli Defence Ministry delegation visited Alabama on 20 October, two weeks before the announcement, for discussions with US Army Security Assistance Command officials about future purchases.
Formal talks on a successor to the 2016 memorandum began in May, though accounts differed on the month. One put the start in June and cited the Israeli Defence Ministry.
The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act carries a provision that would widen US-Israeli cooperation on new defence technology and look for ways to bring Israeli technology into the US military. Congress has not yet approved the legislation.
Some Israeli officials feared a shift could cost Israel its intellectual property while US restrictions remained in force, said a person briefed on the diplomatic discussions who requested anonymity.
Maariv reported that the air force logged in three years the flight hours it would typically accumulate over nine years in peacetime, increasing aircraft wear and maintenance needs. Over that period, tanks and armoured personnel carriers used thousands of engines. The military also consumed as much ammunition in three years as it had in the preceding three decades.
An end to US funding would make it harder to replace that ammunition and equipment and would add to the cost of purchases Israel has already agreed to make, Maariv said.
Supporters call it a partnership of equals
Victoria Coates, now a vice president at the Heritage Foundation, where she works on national security and foreign policy, and formerly a deputy national security adviser to Trump, told Newsweek that assistance had been important to Israel's security.
She said Israel has changed considerably over the past 30 or 40 years. The country is now a major military, economic and technological power, and its defence spending has risen substantially.
a story of Israeli strength and success, not American abandonment.
Washington and Jerusalem should relate as more equal partners, so disagreements couldn't make security assistance a tool of political pressure, she said. The change would mean losing a source of political influence.
What we know
- Trump said about $4 billion a year in aid to Israel would stop by the end of the year.
- The 2016 memorandum committed $38 billion over 10 years.
- The current memorandum of understanding is not due to expire until 2028.
Still unclear
- When US aid will actually stop, and how a cutoff squares with a memorandum running to 2028.
- Whether funding stops at the end of the year or the two countries shift gradually to a different model of defence cooperation.
- What happens to fighter-jet contracts already signed, and what currency Israel would pay in.
- Whether the National Defense Authorization Act provision on technology cooperation passes.
Trump said payments would stop by the close of 2026. But the current memorandum of understanding remains in force through 2028, and talks on a replacement began in May, with no outcome announced.
