U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News that he had reached an agreement with Israel to end military financial aid to that country at the end of the year.
“When it comes to paying Israel, (Israeli Prime Minister) Bibi (Benjamin) Netanyahu and I made a deal: we were giving Israel $4 billion a year, and a few months ago we made a deal that we would stop giving them money. They don’t mind,” Trump said. He noted that Netanyahu himself proposed it and added that Israel will still be able to buy American weapons.
As he explained, the aid is set to end at the close of 2026. He said Israel does not need the aid and decided to take this step to deprive opponents of the U.S.-Israel alliance of their arguments about excessive spending on support for Israel. Trump’s remarks came on the day of the U.S. midterm elections. Support for Israel was one of the most controversial topics of the campaign.
“They don’t need it, so why should we suffer attacks from lunatics like El-Sayed, if they don’t need it?” Trump asked, referring to Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, who is known for his criticism of Israel.
The current security assistance agreement between the U.S. and Israel provides for about $3.8 billion in support annually through 2028. The aid takes mainly the form of loans or grants for the purchase of weapons under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, as well as support for missile defense systems such as the Iron Dome.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said many times over the past year that he wants to gradually phase out U.S. support for Israel. In interviews with The Economist and CBS, Netanyahu said he wants to end American military aid entirely within 10 years.
During a live telephone interview on Tuesday on “Fox and Friends,” Trump also confirmed that U.S. forces struck Iran on Monday.
“It was just a small strike (…) they built an anti-aircraft base. It took them about two months. We watched it being built. As soon as it was finished, last night we hit it very nicely,” he said. Trump stressed, however, that this does not mean a return to war, and argued that the conflict with Iran “is not really a war.” He also assured that he does not want to keep killing people, but will do so if he has to.
“We have them in our grip. We can finish them off, or we can be nice and let live the thousands of people who would die in a war,” he said.
From Washington, Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
