US will halt $4B in aid to Israel as the Mideast ally weans itself from
American dependence
[November 04, 2026]
By BEN FINLEY, MATTHEW LEE and DARLENE SUPERVILLE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will stop providing $4 billion in
aid each year to Israel in 2027 but will sell arms to its closest ally
in the Middle East, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.
The Republican president told Fox News Channel during a phone call on
Election Day for the midterms that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu had approached him about the idea and that they have been
talking about it for a couple of years.
Trump said Israel doesn’t need the aid and it’s a lot of money for the
U.S. to spend. But Trump also said that U.S. aid to Israel has become a
Democratic talking point for candidates such as Michigan U.S. Senate
candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel.
Even far-right conservatives, who have supported Trump in the past, have
taken issue with U.S. support for Israel, with prominent commentators
like Tucker Carlson openly questioning the value of the relationship.
“You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,”
Trump said. “Look, we give them $4 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.”
But if Trump intended the announcement to make a last-ditch effort to
sway midterm votes, analysts said it likely would not work.
“It's an open question if this was about politics, but it isn't going to
change Republican voters, and it certainly isn't going to change
Democratic voters,” said David Schenker, who served as Trump's top
diplomat for the Middle East in his first term and is now with the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Israeli opposition leaders want to hear from Netanyahu
There was no comment from Netanyahu or his office as of Tuesday evening
Israel time, several hours after Trump's announcement. The prime
minister did post twice on social media, but he focused on
unsubstantiated allegations of foreign interference in Israel’s
elections, not on what Trump said.
But at least some of his political opponents were critical.
His chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, called on the prime minister to speak to
the possibly radical change in U.S.-Israeli relations.
“The fact that Israel’s defense establishment is learning of a shift in
our strategic relationship through the media, at the same time as the
Israeli public, shows just how dangerous Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct
is,” Eisenkot, a former military chief, said in a statement.
Yair Golan, a leader in Israel’s opposition bloc, said an end to U.S.
military aid would deal a “severe blow to Israel’s security” at a time
when the country is fighting wars on multiple fronts.
“The burden of funding defense needs at such a critical juncture will
fall entirely upon the Israeli public,” Golan, a former deputy military
chief, said in a statement.
Tens of billions of dollars have gone to Israel
The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid
to Israel over decades.
In 2016, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, signed an unprecedented
security agreement with Israel to give its military $38 billion over 10
years, amounting to $3.8 billion a year. Under the agreement, Israel’s
ability to spend part of the funds on Israeli military products was to
be phased out and eventually all of the money would be spent on American
military industries.
Netanyahu has talked about the need to wean Israel off the aid in the
past and has said that the American aid would end at some point.
He told The Economist in January that he wanted to “taper off” U.S.
military aid in the next 10 years and that such a change was “in the
works.”
Although Trump spoke of ending the aid by the end of 2026, such an
abrupt shift would be all but impossible, and Congress will have a large
say in what happens. More likely, there could be a wind-down of the
current memorandum of understanding if Congress agrees, but it's unclear
if that could happen as early as 2027. The current agreement is not set
to expire until 2028.
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President Donald Trump after speaking in front of the Lincoln
Memorial Reflecting Pool, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Behind the scenes, there have been discussions about whether the
U.S.-Israel arrangement should be restructured in the long term into
one that’s more of a partnership of the two countries' defense tech
and weapons manufacturing industries.
The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision
that would expand U.S.-Israeli cooperation on the development of new
defense technology and identify opportunities to integrate Israeli
defense technology into the U.S. military. The NDAA has not yet been
approved by Congress.
But there has been some concern from the Israeli side that such a
shift in the relationship could result in the Israelis giving up
their intellectual property but still facing constraints imposed by
the U.S., according to a person who is familiar with the diplomatic
discussions but was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on
the condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, some critics, including Rep. Ro Khanna, a California
Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, have criticized the
provision in the NDAA. Khanna said such integration between the
militaries would lead to the U.S. losing sovereignty.
Trump says critics can easily target the $4 billion payment
The optics of the aid had also become an issue, according to Trump,
who singled out El-Sayed for using it as a talking point.
“The left uses the $4 billion payment — that everybody knows about,
it’s no secret — as a signal of unfairness,” Trump said Tuesday on
Fox. “And we can’t allow that to happen. I don’t like that, because
it’s too easy. It’s almost too easy a target. And Bibi and I have
been talking, and we’ve agreed. He was very understanding of it.”
Phasing out direct military and economic aid to Israel has long been
a subject of debate in both countries and has gained traction in the
last several years. “This has been coming for a long time,” said
Schenker.
There are several issues that complicate it, though, not least of
which are obligations the U.S. has to Israel under the terms of the
Camp David peace accords with Egypt, which require the United States
to support Israel and Egypt with security assistance.
In addition, much of the assistance the U.S. provides Israel comes
in the form of foreign military financing, or FMF, that gives Israel
the money but requires it to spend the money on American-produced
weaponry, meaning the funds are plowed back into the U.S. economy.
Unless Israel plans to spend the same amount on purchasing American
materiel, U.S. defense contractors may see an impact.
In addition, even if aid were to be suddenly cut off, there would
still be many years of previous purchases in the pipeline waiting to
be delivered. Most purchases take years from the sale to
construction and then delivery.
“The real question for me is whether weapons deliveries will be
affected,” Schenker said. “Will Israel be prioritized?”
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed.
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