By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Israel is working to secure a 20-year military aid deal from the US now that Americans’ support for the Jewish state has collapsed, according to a report from Axios.
They’re trying to sell this scam as “America First” (just like 50-year mortgages).
From “former” Israeli intelligence officer Barak Ravid in Axios, “Scoop: Israel seeks 20-year military aid deal with U.S. with ‘America First’ tweaks”:
Israel is seeking a new 20-year security agreement with the U.S. — doubling the usual term and adding “America First” provisions to win the Trump administration’s support, Israeli and U.S. officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: While the past agreement promised Israel around $4 billion per year in military aid, and Israel is likely to seek at least that much going forward, passing such a deal will now be more complicated because of growing frustrations with Israel, including within Trump’s MAGA base.
That means the cost will be at least $80 billion, though likely much more.
Behind the scenes: The negotiations over the new security MOU were delayed for some time due to the war in Gaza, but initial discussions began in recent weeks, according to two Israeli officials and one U.S. official.
– During these discussions, the Israeli side floated two ideas for changes in the new security agreement.
– The first proposal was extending the agreement from 10 to 20 years, which would make it broader in scope and take the agreement through Israel’s 100-year anniversary of independence in 2048.
– The second change the Israelis proposed was to use some of the money for joint U.S.-Israeli research and development, rather than direct military aid. That could be in the fields of defense tech, defense-related AI, and the Golden Dome missile defense project, an Israeli official said.
This MOU is just a floor, of course.
The US spent $31 billion on military aid to Israel and related operations in the wider Middle East following October 7th, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project.
The US has given Israel some $330 billion in military and economic aid from 1946 to 2024, and the numbers keep going up. Of course, that doesn’t count the $2 trillion the US spent on the war in Iraq at Israel’s behest.
Israelis have been pushing the lie that they’re planning to taper off US aid for some time now.
Just last month, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu fed the lie to Ben Shapiro (who nodded along like a bobblehead doll):
Odds are Trump will sign off on this deal, or another similar one, with little protest. He’ll tell everyone it’s “America First” — just as he did with his decision to continue US aid to Ukraine as a “loan” and then later as “arms sales to NATO.”