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USA and Israel: Trump announces end to billions in aid for Israel
The USA supports Israel with billions of dollars in military aid every year. President Trump wants to end this at the end of the year because Israel no longer needs it. more...
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dpa/afp US President Donald Trump wants to stop billions in aid to Israel at the end of the year. He and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed that Israel would no longer be dependent on the $4 billion (almost €3.6 billion) in subsidies, Trump said in a phone call with US broadcaster Fox News. Instead, the US would sell weapons to Israel. Trump added: “We will help Israel if they need it.”
Trump said he had agreed to stop financial aid “months ago” with Netanyahu and claimed that the idea came from Netanyahu in order to stop the “waste” of funds that has been going on for years. There was initially no confirmation of this from Netanyahu.
Trump said: "Israel is our number one. We give them more money than anyone else, and they don't need it anymore." But he added: “If they really needed it, I would say: let it continue.”
The Israeli prime minister had already announced in interviews this year that he wanted to completely phase out annual US military aid, currently around $3.8 billion, within a decade. However, cooperation with Washington, particularly on missile defense, should continue.
The program was negotiated under Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama and was implemented from 2019. Aid totaling $38 billion was agreed in 2016 for the years up to 2028 - Israel will therefore receive $3.8 billion annually.
“We view our military aid as important not only for the State of Israel, but also for the security of the USA,” then US President Barack Obama said in a meeting with Netanyahu in 2015. The aim at the time was, among other things, to stop the actions of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) and the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah militia.