US President Donald Trump says he made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would stop funding Israel after the end of this year.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Israel no longer needed the $US4 billion ($A5.7 billion) in annual funding and that some Democrats were using the US financial support to Israel as a talking point to criticise Republicans.
“You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,” Trump said.
“Look, we give them $US4 billion of things and money, and they don’t need it. And I was approached by Bibi Netanyahu, and we’ve been talking about it for a couple of years because it’s a lot of money.”
“We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel. Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office on Trump’s remarks.
A memorandum of understanding that provides $US3.8 billion annual US military aid to Israel is approaching its expiration date in 2028 and conversations have been under way on how the US assistance to Israel would evolve beyond that date.
The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the last few years.
An academic study published last year showed the US under the administrations of president Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump provided at least $US21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel after the start of the Gaza Strip war in 2023.
The study was published on the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict.
“They can buy whatever they want. They can buy whatever they want. So can Europe. We make the greatest weapons in the world,” Trump added on Tuesday.
Netanyahu said in a May interview with CBS that he hoped to wean Israel off US military support within a decade.
In a June letter to a US congressman he wrote that the time had come for Israel “to move from aid recipient to partner”.
US public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza Strip war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats.
A June Quinnipiac University poll indicated 48 per cent of voters and 66 per cent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16 per cent and 20 per cent when the question was first asked in 2017.
Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted, candidates critical of Israel are winning Democratic primaries and even moderate politicians are increasingly willing to challenge decades of US support for Israel.
“The left uses the $US4 billion payment that everybody knows about, well it’s no secret, as a signal of unfairness, and we can’t allow that to happen,” Trump said.
“We were giving them 4 billion, we are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year,” he said.
“Why? Because they don’t need it.”
with AP
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