Will US military aid to Israel stay solid under Trump?

The new old US President Donald Trump refuses to fight other people’s wars, so the US presence in the Middle East, including military aid to Israel, whether through financial grants or through physical presence, could change.

Under the agreement reached between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama covering the period 2019-2028, Israel receives from the United States $3.3 billion annually for procurement and an additional $500 million for air defense cooperation. This agreement was signed in 2016, so the future of US aid will be determined by Trump.

The War of the Iron Swords represented a turning point in American financial and material aid. according to paper In the first 12 months of the war alone, US aid to Israel totaled $17.9 billion, of which $6.8 billion was military funding and $4.5 billion was military aid, Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs published in its Costs of War project. Missile defense. On the physical side, the United States has deployed a THAAD battery in Israel, to complement Israel’s multi-layered air defense array. US Navy ships intercepted numerous threats to Israel made by various enemies.

General (res.) Doron Gavish, former commander of Israeli air defenses, says that “the American deployment in the region constitutes an element of deterrence.” “The second thing is the operational element, as the American presence expands the range of solutions to the threat, whether in defense against missiles and missiles or in defense against drones.”

There are concerns that just as Trump is expected to order the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, he will also do so from Syria and Israel. There will also likely be a change in the structure of US aid. “Israel will be asked to give more in exchange for aid,” says Jacob (Yaki) Dayan, a former diplomat at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and Israel’s consul general in Los Angeles. “The aid package will have to be settled from 2029 next time.” Trump will demand that the package include a quid pro quo with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on January 23, 2025.

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