The White House on Wednesday confirmed it is giving the Israeli military $38 billion during the next 10 years – more military assistance than the United States has ever pledged to any other country.
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The White House has been quick to point out this is the largest military aid pledge ever made in American history.
Right now, the USA provides $3.1 billion to the Israel military every year.
On Wednesday, US Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon and the Head of Israel’s National Security Council Yaakov Nagel signed the MOU agreement which consists of $33 billion in foreign military financing and $5 billion in missile defense funds.
“This commitment to Israel’s security has been unwavering and is based on a genuine and abiding concern for the welfare of the Israeli people and the future of the State of Israel”, he said.
The US President also called for more efforts to advance a two-state solution to the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite the “deeply troubling trends on the ground that undermine this goal”.
The United States and the global community consider these settlements to be a primary obstacle to Palestinian independence.
The relationship between Mr Obama’s and Mr Netanyahu has been famously fraught for years, and ties between the countries worsened significantly when the USA. and world powers struck a nuclear deal with Iran.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu and I are confident that the new MOU will make a significant contribution to Israel’s security in what remains a risky neighbourhood”, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a written statement.
US (United States) signed a planned security agreement with Jewish State, Israel.
Under the agreement, Israel’s ability to spend part of the funds on Israeli military products will be phased out, eventually requiring all of the funds to be spent on American military industries.
The deal, whose details were reported by Reuters earlier, will allow Washington’s chief Middle East ally to upgrade most of its fighter aircraft, improve its ground forces’ mobility and strengthen its missile defense systems, a senior USA official said. “This marks a significant increase over our existing funding, and it will ensure that Israel has the support it needs to defend itself by itself and to preserve its qualitative military edge”.
According to the memorandum, Israel will receive almost $4 billion per year for the next decade.
In his statement, Netanyahu acknowledged the recent diplomatic disputes between Jerusalem and Washington, but said they “had no effect whatsoever on the great friendship between Israel and the U.S.”.
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The new agreement eliminates Israel’s ability to spend a fraction of the funds on fuel for its military.
