The War Zone has reported:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday morning that the United States will stop providing Israel with billions of dollars in annual assistance by the end of 2026. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to the decision, which comes as Washington and Jerusalem consider plans for a new wave of attacks on Iran and American voters show growing antipathy toward Israel following the Gaza war and the United States’ involvement in the war with Iran.

Trump announced the change in an interview with Fox & Friends, addressing American voters ahead of the midterm election. He said the United States currently gives Israel $4 billion a year, and that the two leaders had made an agreement months earlier to stop the payments. The announcement surprised many in Israel, despite Netanyahu’s public statements that the country should reduce its reliance on direct U.S. assistance and increase cooperation on weapons development.

“As far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that - we give Israel $4 billion a year - and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” Trump said. “And they’re fine with it because you know they have become a very successful country. They don’t need it, and we won’t be paying anymore to Israel, so it’s just a wasted thing because we’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel.”

“Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” Trump added. “You know they’ve been a great ally, and we’ve been the greatest of all allies to many many countries.”

Trump did not specify which expenditures he meant. The White House was contacted for further details. His remarks appeared to refer to the decade-long U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding, or MoU, which provides for $3.8 billion in annual aid and is scheduled to run through 2028. Most of that funding is Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, used to buy weapons, primarily from U.S. manufacturers.

The president’s stated figure of $4 billion differs from the annual amount in the current MoU. A 2025 Congressional Research Service report says the two governments signed their third 10-year agreement in 2016, covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028. Under its terms, the United States pledged, subject to congressional appropriation, $38 billion in military aid: $33 billion in FMF grants and $5 billion for missile defence appropriations.

The MoU is a commitment, not a legally binding obligation, and Congress must approve funding requests. Trump’s announcement therefore raises questions about congressional authorization and the effect a reduction could have on planned future sales of advanced U.S. weapons to Israel. The announcement did not explain how those questions would be addressed.

### Negotiations over a new framework

The Israeli Defence Ministry said Washington and Jerusalem began negotiating a new MoU in June. It described the proposed framework as reflecting the strategic vision of Israel’s prime minister and defence minister, with the stated aim of strengthening the Israel Defence Forces’ qualitative military edge through expanded joint investment in research, development and co-production.

The ministry said the framework would deepen the partnership demonstrated during Operation Roaring Lion and gradually move the relationship from aid to “a completely reciprocal partnership.” It did not provide details about the proposed funding levels or timeline.

Netanyahu has been preparing Israelis for lower U.S. assistance for months. Last month, he told Israeli media that the country should not expect the continuation of the tens of billions of dollars in American support he had secured twice for the defence budget. “That is because America has changed, not because Israel has changed. It will end. It is only a matter of time,” he said, according to Bloomberg News.

Netanyahu also said Israel had two more years with Trump, but should prepare for a less favourable Washington after the president leaves office. In January, he told The Economist he did not seek a full renewal of the MoU, which must be renegotiated by 2028.

“I want to taper off the military aid within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told the publication. Asked whether that meant reducing it to zero, he answered, “yes.” He said, “We want to be as independent as possible.” Referring to his meeting with Trump in Florida in late December, Netanyahu said: “In my visit to President Trump, I said we very deeply appreciate the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age, and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”

### Aid’s changing share of Israel’s defence spending

The Crisis Group think tank argued in August that the MoU has significance beyond its financial value because it serves as a measure of the depth and durability of U.S. support. FMF has helped Israel build military power without bearing the full cost, and ending the assistance would impose real expenses. Israel would need to pay from its own budget for critical U.S. weapons.

Israel’s annual gross domestic product now exceeds $700 billion, while its defence spending is above $40 billion. Crisis Group said Israel has found it increasingly difficult to argue that it needs an additional $3.3 billion each year for military purchases. Netanyahu has asked the finance ministry to provide billions of dollars in extra defence funding over the next decade, much of it intended to buy U.S. fighter jets, on the assumption that Washington will no longer provide the money for those purchases.

U.S. assistance has become a smaller portion of Israel’s overall defence budget since the Hamas attack, as Israel raised its own spending. The support was also supplemented by several large U.S. aid packages for bombs and other weapons.

The Israel Policy Forum said in May that, for most of the previous 15 years, Israel’s annual $3.3 billion in FMF represented about 20 per cent of its defence budget. During that period, the defence budget accounted for 5 to 6 per cent of Israel’s GDP. Israeli defence spending and the share supported by U.S. aid declined gradually amid economic growth through the 2010s, then rose sharply in 2023 after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the wars that followed.

After the incursion, Israel raised defence spending, both within its regular budget and through extraordinary expenditures, to 8 to 9 per cent of GDP. Between late 2023 and early 2026, the United States also provided several large supplemental security assistance packages in addition to the MoU aid. The Israel Policy Forum said U.S. assistance briefly accounted for more than one-third of Israel’s defence budget in 2024, given the combined effect of higher Israeli spending and substantial American support.

In 2025, the U.S. share fell to close to 10 per cent, while Israel spent an estimated NIS 168 billion, or $52 billion, on defence, according to the forum. Crisis Group said Israel had until recently received a partial exemption from the requirement to spend FMF funds on American products. That carveout let Israel invest some of the money in its own defence industry and helped Israeli firms compete in the arms export market.

### Israel’s reliance on U.S. equipment

Israel has received more than $175 billion in U.S. aid since the country was established in 1948 and continues to depend heavily on American military equipment. The Israeli Air Force’s tactical aviation fleet includes U.S.-built F-15, F-16 and F-35 aircraft, as well as AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. Israel has also made deals for KC-46A aerial refuelling tankers and CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters, and it uses large quantities of American precision munitions.

Israeli missile defence systems, including Iron Dome and Arrow 3, were developed with significant U.S. assistance. Aviram Hasson, director of the Israeli Defence Ministry’s mission to the United States and Canada, told The Times of Israel last month that Israel wanted to use its weapons-development experience to add value to the American defence industry.

Hasson said Israel’s continuing wars and regional threats from state and non-state actors can make the country a testing ground for U.S. defence technologies. The publication reported that he pointed to engineering advances and intellectual property from Israel’s active-defence systems, and said every U.S. government request for technology arising from the long-range anti-ballistic missile Arrow 3 programme had been fulfilled.

“It is clear on both sides of the ocean that this cooperation is a strategic need of both powers, not only of Israel,” Hasson told the newspaper. His comments framed joint development as a reciprocal element of the relationship as the two governments negotiate a new framework.

The United States has also committed substantial resources to Israel’s defence beyond direct financial aid. In recent years, that has included responding to multiple Iranian missile barrages against Israel and direct U.S. participation in two wars. The source account also begins to refer to additional U.S. deployments, but its text ends before providing further details.