President Trump said on Tuesday that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed months ago to stop the $4 billion a year the United States pays Israel after the end of this year, telling Fox & Friends on Election Day morning that Israel no longer needs the money.
"As far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we're stopping," Trump said. "We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll help Israel if they need it."
Trump gave two reasons. The first is that Israel does not need the funding. The second is political: he said Democrats and left-wing politicians use the American support for Israel as a talking point against Republicans, and he named Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who opposes unconditional military aid to Israel. "Because they don't need it, and because why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don't need it? It's a bad talking point," he said.
How the payments would stop at the end of the year is not yet clear. The memorandum of understanding between the two countries provides $3.8 billion a year in American military aid to Israel and does not expire until 2028, and while Congress set the funding in law in 2020, the money still moves through yearly appropriations bills. Talks have been under way on how American assistance to Israel would change after the current agreement. Neither the White House nor Netanyahu's office answered requests for comment on Tuesday.
Netanyahu himself warned Israelis in October that the era of the big American aid packages is ending. "If you think we're going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that's tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won't happen because America has changed," he told an Israeli television channel.
For American taxpayers, the deal Trump describes takes $4 billion a year off the foreign-aid bill — money that stays in the United States instead of going overseas — while keeping his promise that America will still help Israel if it is ever truly in need. It also takes the aid argument out of the midterm fight: a June Quinnipiac poll found 48 percent of voters, and 66 percent of Democrats, believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, and candidates critical of Israel have been winning Democratic primaries on the issue.
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