US Warns Netanyahu Against Spurning Aid Package in Hopes of Better Deal

Netanyahu Talks Up Idea of Waiting for Next President to Sign Pact

Senior US officials speaking in the Israeli press over the weekend warned the Netanyahu government against rejecting a proposed massive increase in military aid, saying the pledge was already the biggest single aid pledge by far and wasn’t going to get better.

Exact details of the offer still aren’t clear, but the US is expected to pledge in excess of $80 billion to Israel over the next 20 years, along with a one-off pledge of several more billion dollars in military subsidies as reparations for the Iran nuclear deal.

That this is a huge increase over the previous 20-year deal seems lost of Netanyahu, who based on some tensions with the White House has suggested that Israel might reject the “memorandum of understanding” until January of 2017 and try to get even more out of the next US president.

Major US candidates always campaign on being even more committed to Israel than their predecessors, but aid always dependably increases dramatically when the next 20-year plan comes up, meaning who happens to be president at any given time likely doesn’t matter.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.