$3.8 billion a year: Trump says Israel no longer needs Washington's money
The US money helps Israel buy weapons, and Trump says Israel no longer needs it. An Israeli opposition candidate challenged the handling of the decision, while the cutoff date and remaining commitments are unresolved.
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Nov 3, 22:00 UTC ·
621 words
Donald Trump said he would end $3.8 billion a year that helps Israel buy weapons, saying Benjamin Netanyahu agreed.
Speaking on Fox & Friends on November 3, Trump said he had agreed the move with the Israeli prime minister and that Israel was fine with it, according to an AFP account of the interview. The money comes under a ten-year accord signed by President Barack Obama in 2016 and put into effect in 2019, with assistance due to continue through 2028. [1]
"We'll help Israel if they need it," Trump said. He also said he would support continuing the assistance if Israel needed it, presenting the proposed cutoff as a decision based on Israel's ability to manage without the money. [1]
The announcement is developing. No formal terms or effective date have been published, and Netanyahu's government has not directly confirmed Trump's account. It is unclear how funds already approved or committed would be handled, what steps would implement the change, or whether it covers the entire annual package. [1]
The immediate change is therefore political: Trump has publicly said Washington intends to end a longstanding financial commitment. Whether that becomes an immediate cutoff or a negotiated transition will determine how much of the existing arrangement survives.
An accord with years left to run
The assistance was designed to run for ten years, from 2019 through 2028, at $3.8 billion annually. Trump's announcement concerns the future of that arrangement before its scheduled end. [1]
For Israel, the practical issue is money for weapons purchases. For Washington, it is whether a commitment made under one president continues under another. A fixed annual sum gives both governments a financial baseline. Ending it requires them to establish what replaces that baseline, even if the answer is no regular assistance.
To plan purchases with any future American help, Israel would need to know how much money Washington would provide, when it would arrive and what it could buy. Trump's conditional offer supplies none of those details. It leaves future support dependent on a judgment that Israel needs assistance, without explaining how that judgment would be made. [1]
There is also a practical difference between stopping money for new purchases and changing support for purchases already committed. Which commitments survive will shape the financial effect of the announcement on Israel's weapons buying.
Trump brings domestic politics into the decision
Trump also linked his reasoning to criticism from Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for the US Senate. He asked why the United States should "suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don't need it?" [1]
The remark puts two arguments behind his announcement: that Israel can do without the assistance and that continuing it exposes him to political criticism. Neither argument specifies how the remaining commitments would be settled.
In Israel, opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot attacked Netanyahu over the announcement. Eisenkot said Israel's defense establishment was learning through the media about a shift in the strategic relationship, and said Netanyahu could no longer be trusted and must be replaced. That account of how defense officials learned of the decision is Eisenkot's statement. [1]
Netanyahu's goal of less reliance
Netanyahu has previously spoken publicly about reducing Israel's dependence on American support. In January, he told The Economist that he hoped to reduce that reliance within a decade. In May, he told CBS that he wanted support to reach "zero", and in June he called for greater Israeli military autonomy. [1]
Those statements give Trump's announcement a political context. A goal of greater independence can accommodate a gradual reduction in assistance. It does not, by itself, establish consent to a particular cutoff date or to ending purchases already in progress.
The existing accord runs through 2028. Trump's announcement has yet to supply a replacement timetable. [1]
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