Even though the current deal does not expire until 2018, the Obama administration was insistent about completing a new one before the president leaves office in January.
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The US and Israel has signed an unprecedented new military aid deal that will give the Israeli military $38 billion from fiscal year 2019 to 2028. Under the previous arrangement, US Congress approved funds for missile defence separately and on an annual basis.
Politico reports that “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”.
But that was still better for the Israelis than waiting to see what a possible Trump administration could bring. “I want to thank President Obama and his administration for this historic agreement”.
“The chances I think of anything happening in the next six months, barring some epiphany on the part Netanyahu or [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas, are slim to none”, he said.
“The only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine”, he said.
Acknowledging the unrelieved tensions between Yerushalayim and Washington, Netanyahu said they “had no effect whatsoever on the great friendship between Israel and the U.S”.
Netanyahu would find no such unpredictability in Clinton, whom he worked with when she was secretary of state.
It was noted that an MOU is not a formal treaty, and is not binding on Congress, which was not party to the negotiations and was not privy to details of the agreement. But despite attention to the topic throughout his two terms as president, he was unable to cinch a deal in the Camp David negotiations in 2000.
In the past, funding for Israel’s missile defense was provided in addition to the existing military aid of the agreement.
Right … with billions of USA tax dollars. “Many communities in the U.S. rely disproportionately on this industry as well as having military bases in close proximity”, he noted.
In March 2015, Netanyahu addressed US Congress during which he thanked Obama for his support of Israel while at the same time criticized the Iran nuclear agreement because it would “not block Iran’s path to the bomb”. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat and disagreed sharply with Obama’s contention that the deal actually made Israel safer by limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
The Republican legislator from SC has objected to the deal recently reached by the administrations of U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to add another decade and a lot more money to American support of Israeli defense.
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Relations between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Obama have been frosty, but both leaders have had an interest in putting aside their disagreements and reaching a deal. “This agreement demonstrates the simple truth that the relationship between Israel and the U.S.is strong and powerful”.
