Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a critic of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two allies, called it important but slammed a provision that would limit Israel from seeking additional funds from the USA except in times of war.
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The new package for the first time will incorporate money for Israeli missile defense, which until now has been funded ad hoc by Congress. U.S. lawmakers have in recent years given Israel up to $600 million in annual discretionary funds for this goal.
Among them, the Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Stephen M. Greenberg, who was present at the signing, said that “the overwhelming sense reflected in statements from President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, in Ambassador Rice’s remarks and expressed by everyone at the signing today was that this new MOU provides both Israel and our nation with enormous benefits”.
But the U.S. president said a bolstered military was not enough to secure long-term stability for the Jewish state.
The package constitutes the most ever given to any country and was reported by Reuters earlier.
But the Obama administration has been eager to lock in the agreement before leaving he leaves office to bolster the president’s legacy and undermine the criticism that his administration was insufficiently supportive of Israel.
Netanyahu has been particularly irked by the initiative the U.S. pursues in the region for a so-called two-state solution.
But in a nod to his differences with Netanyahu, with whom he has clashed over the Iran nuclear deal and Israeli settlement activity, Obama stressed the importance of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an imperative he said was as vital to Israel’s security as the aid package.
Barring a last-minute snag, the new agreement is expected to be officially rolled out this week, one source close to the matter said.
Obama said the 10-year, $38 billion agreement – the most generous of its kind ever – would “make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a unsafe neighborhood”.
“The Israeli prime minister told me the administration is refusing to sign the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] until I agree to change my appropriation markup back to $3.1 billion”, Graham said.
Writing on Twitter, Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer thanked Obama directly for “forging this historic agreement”.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest pro-Israel lobbying group, praised Mr Obama for completing the deal and said it would send “a strong message of deterrence” to Israel’s enemies. Instead, all the aid will have to be spent on USA defense contractors who will supply Israel.
Israel must also not seek additional funds from Congress beyond what will be guaranteed annually in the new package. The agreement also includes a provision curtailing Israel’s ability to spend the funds on its own arms industry over the next six years – a key area of dispute during talks. But what remains in the new pact is the removal of Israel’s ability to spend about 26% of the annual allocation in Israel. Currently, Israel can spend 26.3 percent of USA military aid buying from its own domestic defense companies. In terms of missile defense, the United States has paid for the majority of the production costs for the Iron Dome system since 2011, the centerpiece of Israel’s missile defense architecture.
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Israel, which is considered the US’ closest ally in the Middle East, has always been a major recipient of U.S. aid, mostly in the form of military assistance against a backdrop of an ebbing and flowing conflict with the Palestinians and its neighbors, as well as threats from Iran.
