With the United States now joining Israel in the current campaign against the Islamic regime in Iran, the debate over US military aid to Israel has intensified. Critics often portray this assistance as a one-sided handout, but this narrative fundamentally misunderstands both the origins of this aid and what Israel has sacrificed to receive it.
The current 10-year Memorandum of Understanding, signed in September 2016 during the final months of the Obama administration, illustrates perfectly how US aid operates. One clause of the agreement required Israel to purchase certain equipment and armaments from the United States, essentially shutting down parts of Israel’s weapons manufacturing industry.
This represents a significant strategic sacrifice. By dismantling portions of its indigenous defense industry, Israel not only lost the ability to manufacture these weapons systems but also forfeited potential revenue from selling such equipment to other nations.
The restrictions on Israel from shopping for comparable weapons from other countries have effectively tied Israel’s hands in the global arms market.
This concession on Israel’s military industry is emblematic of the dynamic underlying the US-Israel aid relationship. Following the 1979 Camp David Accords, aid grew significantly as Israel surrendered the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. The strategic depth and oil resources Israel relinquished in exchange for peace with Egypt came at enormous cost, which the aid was designed to offset.
The pattern repeated in 2000, when US president Bill Clinton sought to encourage far-reaching Israeli concessions to Yasser Arafat at the Camp David Summit. Clinton understood that he needed to beef up military aid to Israel to help then-prime minister Ehud Barak sell these territorial and security compromises to the Israeli public.
Again in 2007, president George W. Bush increased aid to Israel in conjunction with the Annapolis Summit, strengthening prime minister Ehud Olmert’s position to make additional concessions on Palestinian issues.
Most recently, the 2016 aid increase came as a direct response to deteriorating US-Israel relations following America’s signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran – an agreement Israel vehemently opposed. The enhanced aid package served as compensation for America’s strategic pivot toward Iran, a move that fundamentally threatened Israeli security.
The clear lesson: Israel has never come “hat in hand” begging for American assistance. Rather, the United States has repeatedly used aid as an inducement to extract Israeli concessions on core security issues.
US has bases worldwide
Critics of US aid to Israel consistently fail to place this assistance in a proper strategic context. A cursory examination of America’s global military footprint reveals US bases scattered throughout the world.
In the Middle East alone, there are US bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq. Operating these installations costs billions of dollars annually, yet no one characterizes these expenditures as “aid” to host nations. They’re simply classified as “defense spending.”
America maintains no military bases on Israeli soil because Israel is a reliable ally capable of defending both its own interests and broader American strategic objectives in the region.
Jordan, despite hosting a major US air base and multiple training facilities, still receives over $1 billion in direct American aid annually. What is the cost of America’s total military presence in Jordan, and its aid package to that country? How does it compare with the $3.8 billion in aid to Israel? Any honest discussion of aid to Israel must take this into account.
Also noteworthy: US aid to Israel makes up only 2.4% of Israel’s total state budget. This is not a negligible percentage, but it is also not insurmountable should it be drawn down to zero, while also taking into account potential profits to Israel for the sales of weapons that it is currently prohibited from manufacturing.
Israel’s extensive collaboration with the United States in research and development of advanced weapons systems – many of which Israel then purchases with American aid – creates a positive feedback loop that benefits both nations’ defense capabilities.
This represents precisely the kind of relationship that should define America First foreign policy: allowing reliable allies to handle regional security responsibilities without requiring American personnel on the ground.
To understand the true scale of US aid to Israel, consider this: America has provided more assistance to Ukraine since the start of the current conflict than Israel has received in total aid since the Jewish state’s establishment in 1948. This comparison alone should dispel any notion that Israeli aid represents an excessive burden on American taxpayers.
Israel must not depend on the US
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent suggestion that Israel should begin drawing down American aid deserves serious consideration to determine what is in Israel’s best interests.
This war has demonstrated how dependence on US weapons systems and aid allows American administrations to interfere in Israel’s strategic and tactical military decisions. Such interference has prolonged conflicts, complicated victory conditions, and ultimately served as a liability rather than an asset.
America First foreign policy ought not be characterized by blind isolationism and a surrender of global security to China, Russia, and the other bad actors who would rejoice at a US retreat from the world. Rather, a smart America First foreign policy should seek relationships on the Israel model.
Instead of American military bases and personnel on the ground, the US should seek reliable allies who can take care of regional matters on their own, for a comparatively low investment in terms of both dollars and US boots on the ground.
The current US-Israel relationship represents the kind of strategic bargain that should define smart America First foreign policy – one that recognizes the true costs and benefits on both sides of this vital alliance.
The writer is the director of Israel365action.com and co-host of the Shoulder to Shoulder podcast.