The US and Israel have agreed on a $38 billion military aid package over the next 10 years. Junior officials will sign the pact Wednesday. The deal will become the biggest pledge of US military assistance to another country in history.
The new aid package will see Israel receive $3.8 billion per year from Washington, an increase of $700 million from the current $3.1 billion, sources told Reuters. However, the figure fell short of the annual $4.5 billion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been seeking.
Though Israel had previously expressed willingness to wait for the US elections before signing the deal, Netanyahu’s government suddenly reversed its position and agreed to the US proposal.
The terms of the deal, which is classed as a memorandum of understanding (MOU), will include money for Israel’s missile defense program. This had previously been funded by Congress on an informal basis.
The existing arrangement allowed Israel to spend just over a quarter of the aid given by Washington on weapons from its domestic defense industry. Under the new terms, that will be phased out gradually over the next decade. – READ MORE