Their current agreement ends in 2028. Now they want a 20-year deal that would be more in line with the current MAGA movement.
By Catholics for Catholics
Seeking to make a deal more palatable to the MAGA movement, Israel is jockeying to obtain a 20-year security agreement with the United States with a more “America first” component, according to The Times of Israel.
Such a deal would be larger in scope than previous agreements and would conclude until the 100th anniversary of Israel’s independence, which would be in 2048.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries, a 10-year- deal, expires in 2028. Such an agreement was signed by both nations under President Barack Obama in 2016 and it includes $4 billion in yearly aid to Israel.
But times, and the political climate have changed since the last MOU. Under President Donald Trump the US has become more isolationist and the America First policy has managed to put Israel in the spotlight, in an unwanted way, reported The Times.
In addition, the war against Hamas in Gaza has brought criticism to Israel in some quarters.
To soothe the MAGA and America First base, the funds would be spent on joint U.S.-Israeli research and development programs, instead of plain military support, according to Axios. An Israeli official said such a plan would include the Golden Dome missile defense project, defense-related AI and fields of defense technology.
“This is out-of-the-box thinking,” an Israeli official told Axios. “We want to change the way we handled past agreements and put more emphasis on U.S.-Israel cooperation. The Americans like this idea.”
Nevertheless, in an interview with Australian TV, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the report, saying, “I don’t know what they’re talking about. My direction is the exact opposite.”
“I think it’s time to ensure that Israel is independent,” Netanyahu said. “Understand that our military aid is like a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what the U.S. spent in Afghanistan or spent in the Middle East. It’s tiny. But I think that we have a very strong economy. We have a very strong arms industry. It’s true that even though we get what we get, which we appreciate, 80 percent of that is spent in the United States. It produces jobs in the United States. But nevertheless, I’d like to see a much more independent Israeli, an even more independent Israeli defense industry.”
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