The hard-fought deal, which has been under negotiation since November 2015, will provide Israeli with $38 billion in military aid over the next decade with $5 billion earmarked for the development of missile defense systems.
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“We are committed to continue the close cooperation with our American friends at the United Nations as we work together for a safer, more secure and better world”, Danon continued. But to get this deal, Israel had to accept some pretty strict caveats.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the United States aid package to his country as a “historic deal”.
The group recommended in July that Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state.
In the next 10 years, Washington has pledged to provide Israel with 38 billion USA dollars in military assistance.
The historic MOU is unusual in many respects.
The deal will cover a decade in which Netanyahu’s government fears that its old foe Iran – released from worldwide sanctions on its nuclear program – will become even more aggressive in the region.
Congress, however, had planned to give Israel $4 billion in 2017, including $600 million for missile defense, but that figure was too high for the Obama administration.
The officials observed that the almost 10 months of drawn-out aid negotiations underscored continuing friction between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu over last year’s. The Israeli leader was among the most vocal critics of the deal.
He quoted US National Security Advisor Susan Rice as saying “the new agreement with Israel. will be the single largest military assistance package – with any country – in American history”. So basically we’re talking about a race that is neck and neck and with her recent health problems which leaves a pallor over her campaign.
“That’s going to give both of them a potential win-win situation”, she says.
“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”. Netanyahu waged an unprecedented campaign against the deal, breaching diplomatic protocol in lobbying hard against it and further alienating his country’s staunchest ally.
Obama’s support of the Iranian negotiations, has drawn harsh criticism from many Israeli officials as well as US Republicans.
“The U.S.is sending a message to the region that despite all the differences between us and Israel over last few years, none of Israel’s adversaries have a patron willing to commit as much money to their defense as the United States is committing to Israel”, The Washington Institute analyst David Makovsky told USA Today.
First and foremost – no more Congressional handouts. “Israeli defense relationship in the 21st century as we face a range of common challenges, from Iran’s destabilizing activities to the threats from ISIS and radical jihadism”, Clinton said.
As I said before, they pay lip service to worldwide law, they pay lip service to the rule of law; but once the question of Israel is trampling over global law and the principal of human rights, they simply turn a blind eye to it.
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Israel, Nagel said, has committed itself not to ask Congress for additional funds for missile defense.
