US, Israel sign massive military aid deal; $38B, 10 years

The United States and Israel have signed a new aid deal that will give the Israeli military 38 billion dollars (£28.6 billion) over the course of 10 years. No exact sum was disclosed by either side but officials familiar with the deal said it totals $3.8 billion a year - an increase on the $3.1 billion the USA. gave Israel annually under the previous 10-year deal.

The successful conclusion of the agreement, diplomats on both sides said, represents the staying power of a relationship that transcends individual politicians or leaders.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) criticized the new agreement as inadequate, providing $300 million a year below levels that have met with approval by lawmakers and insufficient support for missile defense.

Netanyahu and Obama both plan to be in NY next week for U.N. General Assembly meetings, but officials have not announced any plans for formal meeting.

However, Israel remains the United States' number one ally in the region and the biggest single recipient of U.S. military aid. In March, Trump said he would make Israel pay for defense aid. "She's not Obama. I think that, as a Clinton, she would have a tendency not to want to put Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a corner".

"Israel will not be held accountable [for] anything", Basel Ghattas, an Arab member of Israel's Knesset, or parliament, said recently in Washington.

The United States agreed Wednesday to send a record $3.8 billion in new military aid to Israel over the next decade.

This evening, the United States approved its military aid agreement, in which it will transfer $38 billion to Israel over the course of the next ten years.

"The aid has important symbolic value". But the package was delayed over a dispute between the Obama administration and a key US lawmaker, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of SC, who had argued for a more generous and less restrictive aid package. Netanyahu's strategy of threatening to wait and negotiate with the next administration ended after the staggering loss suffered by the coalition of American Conservatives and Republicans, and joined by Netanyahu, to prevent the nuclear development deal with Iran. "Like so many aspects of the US-Israeli relationship, this MOU is a win-win". '"The prime minister didn't want to engage, so the issue lingered". Jacob Nagel, Israel's acting national security adviser, arrived in Washington Tuesday to sign on behalf of his country.

Israel has agreed to a gradual phasing out of the practice by which as much as 26% of the U.S. aid could be spent on contracts with Israeli defense industries.

An arrangement allowing Israel to spend part of the USA aid it receives on its own defense industry, rather than American products, would have to be scrapped as well, officials were cited by Reuters on Tuesday as saying. Israel apparently concluded that it would not be able to secure a better deal than the one on offer, and the Israeli military was anxious not to lose any more time re-negotiating the deal with a new US administration after the presidential election in November. This would keep Congress from giving more money than President Obama intends in the deal.

The 10-year aid packages underpin Washington's congressionally mandated requirement to help maintain Israel's "qualitative military edge" in the region.

A number of Israeli security officials apparently agree. The new deal phases that out.

"The nuclear challenge is far away right now". Graham, whose Senate appropriations subcommittee oversees foreign aid, wanted to retain the practice that allowed Israel to lobby Congress for ad hoc disbursements earmarked for missile defense.

Israeli officials and the defense establishment still consider the Iran agreement problematic, Herzog said.

Additionally, the deal over time reportedly will roll back the approximately 25 percent of the funds Israel may spend on defense equipment manufactured at home.