Likud MK Says Israel Should Celebrate End of American Military Aid
Likud Knesset member Amit Halevi is welcoming President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States intends to end military assistance to Israel, arguing that the move could strengthen Israel’s independence, free its defense industries from American restrictions and eliminate a major source of diplomatic pressure from Washington.
In an interview Wednesday with Ariel Berman on Kol Chai Radio, Halevi took a position sharply at odds with Israeli officials who have expressed concern about losing billions of dollars in annual American military assistance. Rather than viewing the development as a setback, Halevi suggested that Israelis should recite the Shehecheyanu bracha in celebration.
Halevi revealed that he had personally presented Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a proposal to end direct American military assistance early in his tenure in the Knesset. He argued that decades of financial support had created a relationship of dependency that Washington repeatedly exploited to influence Israeli decisions.
“I came to the prime minister with a plan to end the aid,” Halevi said.
Explaining his position, Halevi maintained that financial assistance between countries inevitably comes with political expectations and obligations.
“When you receive money, generally speaking, there are no free lunches in the international system,” he said. “And therefore, you become dependent.”
According to Halevi, the consequences extend well beyond diplomatic disagreements. He said American assistance has also imposed restrictions on Israel’s defense manufacturers, limiting their ability to export weapons systems, share military technology and independently develop certain capabilities.
He pointed to the Biden administration’s decision to delay weapons shipments to Israel during the war as a particularly clear example of how American military assistance can become a tool for exerting political pressure.
Halevi emphasized that his proposal does not call for weakening the relationship between Jerusalem and Washington. Instead, he wants the two countries to replace the existing assistance arrangement with a partnership based on mutual strategic and economic interests.
“Everything I said in my plan, which the prime minister accepted, was to transfer the money from direct aid, like charity, to cooperation,” Halevi explained.
Among the alternatives he proposed were joint investment funds, collaborative military technology development and initiatives advancing shared American and Israeli interests throughout the Middle East.
“Israel contributes much more than four billion dollars to the United States,” Halevi asserted, arguing that Israel should no longer be portrayed as a country dependent on American financial generosity.
The lawmaker maintained that Israel’s intelligence capabilities, military technology and regional strategic position provide substantial benefits to the United States, making the relationship far more reciprocal than conventional descriptions of American aid suggest.
Halevi also addressed the American midterm elections and growing criticism of Israel’s relationship with Washington. He rejected the argument that Israel had dragged the United States into military conflicts, maintaining that both countries face common security threats and that Israel plays a crucial role in confronting them.
He warned about the spread of radical Islam in Europe and criticized Western governments for failing to recognize the seriousness of the threat. He also faulted Israel’s diplomatic and security establishments for continuing to operate according to outdated assumptions.
“The prevailing conception today, both among our senior diplomatic officials and among military personnel, has not changed,” Halevi said.
Trump announced Tuesday that the United States would discontinue approximately $4 billion in annual assistance to Israel at the end of 2026, saying he and Netanyahu had discussed the arrangement for months. The president argued that Israel had become economically strong enough to purchase its own weapons and that continued American aid had become a political liability for Republicans.
The announcement has raised significant questions because the existing American-Israeli military assistance agreement, signed in 2016, provides $38 billion over ten years and remains in effect through September 2028. The arrangement includes $3.3 billion annually in military financing and another $500 million for missile defense cooperation.
