President Donald Trump said the United States would end its funding to Israel after this year, citing an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Foto: Instagram)
President Donald Trump said Nov. 3 that the United States will end its funding to Israel after this year. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the payments, which he described as $4 billion annually. Trump said Israel “doesn’t need it anymore.”
Trump told Fox News that he and Netanyahu had reached an agreement months ago to halt the payments and that Israel was comfortable with the decision. The figure Trump cited differs from the amount specified in the existing U.S.-Israel funding agreement, which provides for $3.8 billion a year.
Under that agreement, $3.3 billion annually goes to foreign military financing, used mainly to purchase U.S. weapons and technology. Another $500 million is allocated to missile-defense programs, including Iron Dome. The agreement covers the period from 2019 through 2028.
Trump also linked the funding debate to the U.S. midterm elections, in which his party could lose its majority in Congress. He said the political left has used the aid to Israel as an argument with American voters, portraying the $4 billion figure as unfair. Trump said the payments were widely known and that “we can’t let that happen.”
Netanyahu’s future as prime minister is uncertain because the parties backing him did not win a majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. No other bloc secured a majority, so forming a government will depend on political alliances. The pro-Netanyahu bloc won 53 of the 120 seats; the Zionist opposition bloc, led by General Gadi Eisenkot, won 48; and Arab parties won 19.
