Israel, US Negotiating Multiyear Military Aid Deal Phasing Out Direct Aid, Report Says

Israel and the United States are negotiating a new multiyear military aid agreement, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday. According to the daily, Israel is seeking to finalize the deal before the new US Congress is sworn in in January, amid concerns that political obstacles could affect the continuation of aid.

The Democratic Party won control of Congress from US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Yedioth Ahronoth said US military aid to Israel “will not end immediately,” contrary to previous remarks by Trump. Trump told Fox News on US Election Day: “We were giving them $4 billion. We are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year.”

He also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had raised the idea of ending US aid, arguing that Israel had become a successful country that no longer needed the assistance.

The paper quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying Trump made the statement largely for domestic political reasons, in an effort to help Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers in Michigan against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a sharp critic of Israel. The effort failed, with El-Sayed defeating Rogers to become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. Weighing an official’s account against the public record, rather than repeating either side unexamined, is a matter of fairness (Proverbs 18:17).

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, negotiations are being conducted by teams from both countries. Representatives of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are taking part on the American side, while officials from Israel’s Defense Ministry and its embassy in Washington represent Israel. The newspaper said Israeli negotiating teams were stunned by Trump’s announcement that US military assistance to Israel would end by the close of 2026 and were initially unsure what he meant.

The report notes that successive US administrations have provided Israel with extensive military, financial and political support, and that Washington has remained a key military and diplomatic supporter of Israel during its genocide in Gaza since October 2023.

Yedioth Ahronoth said the emerging arrangement does not provide for an immediate end to aid but rather a gradual phaseout. Direct military aid is expected to be reduced by nearly half by shortening the usual 10-year framework to five years after the current agreement expires in 2028, and direct US military assistance would end altogether after that period. At the same time, Washington is expected to increase funding for the joint development of air and missile defense systems from the current $500 million annually to an undisclosed sum, according to the report.

Under the existing framework, Israel receives $3.3 billion annually through the US Foreign Military Financing program over 10 years, totaling $33 billion. The proposed agreement is expected to maintain a similar annual level of direct aid, but for only five years, totaling around $16.5 billion, before direct military aid ends completely, according to the paper.

Source: Read the original report