Global Politicsupdated 13m ago3 min read
Netanyahu’s Office Says U.S. Military Aid to Israel Will End Gradually With Trump
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6 Other3 Israeli3 West Asian1 Western MainstreamThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Netanyahu's office confirms U.S. military aid will be phased out gradually over five years. The arrangement is said to be agreed with President Trump, who announced ending aid.
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Aid phaseout, not immediate
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office insisted that the gradual elimination of U.S. military aid to Israel is an initiative agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump, and it argued that Israel’s economy can support a progressive renunciation of the assistance.
“Trump wants U.S. military funding to Israel to end ‘as soon as possible.’”
Netanyahu’s office said the issue traces to Trump’s comments from a week earlier, when Trump raised the possibility of interrupting U.S. military funding by considering that Israel “no longer needs” that aid due to economic prosperity.
The office also defended the alliance framing by saying “Israel has a strong and stable economy,” and it said both countries are moving “from a model based on economic aid to one focused on collaboration.”
Gadi Eisenkot accused Netanyahu of endangering the strategic relationship with the United States and demanded explanations about planned changes in the framework of military cooperation.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Paris that Trump wants U.S. military funding to Israel to end “as soon as possible.”
Rubio in Paris, Trump on Fox
Marco Rubio described the shift as a change in financing, telling reporters at the G7 meeting in Paris that Trump wants the arrangement to come into effect “as soon as possible.”
Rubio said Trump believes Israel is “prosperous and rich enough” to buy American weapons without relying on military aid, and Rubio added that “They can buy the weapons from us, but we no longer have to provide the financing.”
Netanyahu’s office pointed to Rubio’s account that the proposal to end the assistance originated with Israel, and it also reiterated that Netanyahu had raised the possibility in May during an interview on CBS.
Trump told Fox News that “You can look at it as barter, and you can look at it as military aid or cash. They’re fine with it. They don’t need us,” while Rubio said negotiations are being worked through in terms of the memorandum of understanding.
The reporting also said Trump’s initial announcement that he and Netanyahu had agreed to end U.S. military assistance caught senior Israeli officials by surprise, including officials at the Finance Ministry, the IDF and the Defense Ministry.
Timeline, totals, and what changes
Yedioth Ahronoth reporting, as relayed by multiple outlets, said the memorandum of understanding would not stop aid immediately, but would reduce the total direct military aid package to about half by restricting its duration to five years after 2028, with complete end after that in 2033.
The same reporting said the U.S. funding for joint development of air and missile defense systems would rise from $500 million per year to an amount not yet specified, while negotiations aimed to finalize a new agreement by the end of the year before the new Congress begins its term in January.
Euronews cited a funding gap of about $10 billion to pay for American weapons Israel had already ordered, and it said a document from the U.S. State Department indicated Israel would need about an additional $10 billion after 2028 to cover orders in place as of April 1, 2026.
Euronews also said the ten-year memorandum of understanding scheduled to end in 2028 gives Israel $3.3 billion per year under the U.S. Foreign Military Financing program and $500 million per year for cooperation in missile defense, for a total value of $38 billion.
The stakes in the dispute over timing and mechanisms centered on whether the end-of-2026 deadline would be realistic, with Josh Paul saying stopping aid by the end of 2026 is not realistic given the funding already approved by Congress.