“As the largest military aid package provided to any country in U.S. history, this agreement reflects the importance of the U.S. -Israel relationship and our unwavering commitment to the Jewish state”.
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The United States and Israel have agreed on a record US$38 billion (S$52 billion) package of USA military aid and were due to sign the new pact yesterday, enshrining defence funding for Washington’s closest Middle East ally for the next decade, officials said.
The current agreement, which expires at the end of 2018, totaled $3 billion annually before additional US Congress allocations. “No other Administration has done more for Israel’s security, and United States commitment to Israel will remain unshakeable”, Rice said.
Signed by President Obama in December 2014, the U.S. -Israel Strategic Partnership Act authorizes $3 million to be spent on research pilot programs between Israeli government agencies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Under the agreement, Israel’s ability to spend part of the funds on Israeli military products will be gradually phased out, eventually requiring all of the funds to be spend on American military industries.
Israel, ultimately, accepted the Obama deal, and also promised not to seek additional funds from Congress.
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US President Barack Obama (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
“We don’t have any plans to do anything particularly dramatic at this point”, she said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a unsafe neighbourhood”, Obama said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, the White House argues that “the $500 million in annual missile defense funding under the MOU exceeds the average level of non-emergency support the United States has provided to Israel for missile defense over the last five years”, according to the statement.
“For as long as the state of Israel has existed, the United States has been Israel’s greatest friend and partner, a fact underscored again today”, he said in a statement.
But Obama also used the occasion to press for Israel and the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table in search of a resolution to their decades-old conflict.
Displaying an unprecedented commitment to the Jewish state, the United States has signed the biggest-ever aid deal in its history worth Dollars 38 billion (Rs 2.53 lakh crore) with Israel under which it will buy advanced planes and weaponry and boost the missile defense shield of Jerusalem.
“That’s the paradox. What we hear from Israeli officials is that they can’t stand this administration but they’ve never been so spoiled, and Obama can insist that no one can accuse him of not loving Israel”. “I want to thank President Obama and his administration for this historic agreement”.
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The package constitutes the most ever given to any country and was reported by Reuters earlier. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat and disagreed sharply with Mr Obama’s contention that the deal actually made Israel safer by limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.
