The US has supplied arms to Israel since the early 1960s. But it was only in the late 1970s – following the October/Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the subsequent Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979 – that Israel became a major recipient of military aid from the US. Washington’s thinking at that time was twofold. It wanted to stave off any further existential threats to Israel by maintaining its Cold War ally’s qualitative edge in military technology over any Soviet backed Arab potential enemies. US military aid to both Israel and Egypt was also intended as a reward for the land-for-peace deal concluded between these two former enemies.

Every ten years since then, the US Congress has appropriated ever increasing sums in military aid to Israel. Under the current aid package – renewed in 2016, under the Obama administration – Israel receives $3.8 billion dollars a year. The next package comes up for renewal this year. So, with this apparent annual US largesse to Israel, many were surprised when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a lengthy interview with CBS on May 10 that he wanted to see this American military aid phased out completely.

Netanyahu argued that Israel had “come of age” and wanted to be seen as a partner rather than a country needing constant handouts, whether economic or military. He boasted of Israel’s “high-tech juggernaut economy” that was now in a position to buy its own armaments, and of the country’s technological prowess which it already shared with America and which “we’re going to share … with our Arab friends too.”

Already, $500 million of the $3.8 billion a year in US military aid goes towards joint US-Israeli missile defence programs. The David’s Sling and Arrow systems for defence against mid-range and long-range missiles, were developed jointly under this partnership programme. Netanyahu wants to expand such cooperative ventures to replace direct US aid.

It is important to remember that US military aid comes with major strings attached. It falls under the Foreign Military Funding program, which requires all purchases made using these funds to be from US defence companies. Israel is not at liberty to use the money to buy weapons from any other country, or from its own defence companies. This is the reason some in Israel argue that the aid program benefits the US rather than Israel, essentially supporting US defence companies while hampering the development of Israel’s own industry. The Israeli PM will certainly be concerned about this negative effect of the military aid program on Israeli companies, though he understandably did not use this argument in his interview on a major US network.

But an essay in last month’s Foreign Affairs by a leading Israeli defence analyst argued strongly that it was bad for his country’s economy to go on taking defence “coupons” from the US that could only be spent in America. He also noted that receiving aid also clashed with Israel’s self-image as the “start-up nation” which was now a regional military superpower. Other countries like the Gulf states, after all, pay for US weapons from their own budgets. The essay also warned that the question of aid to Israel was becoming a political question in America and was undermining support for Israel. This is another aspect of the aid program that will worry Netanyahu. And with good reason.

Support in the US for Israel is dropping sharply, especially among the young, even after the ceasefire in the Israeli war on Hamas that has left Gaza largely in ruins. A poll conducted in March by the Pew Research Center found that 60 percent of American adults had an unfavorable view of Israel, compared with 53 per cent last year. And most people under the age of 50, whether Democrat and Republican supporters, said they viewed Israel and its current prime minister negatively. Another poll by Quinnipiac University in August last year found that 60 percent of US voters were against sending more military aid to Israel – the highest percentage since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.

This trend is also seen among the country’s politicians, especially on the Democrat side. Veteran senator Bernie Sanders tried in April to persuade the US Senate to block sales to Israel of heavy bombs and bulldozers, declaring that ending US military aid to the Netanyahu government was “long overdue.” The vote went against him, but Democrat senators voted overwhelmingly in support – an indication that ending US military aid to Israel is now the majority Democrat position in the Senate. Other leading Democrats are also calling for a halt to all US arms sales to Israel. Rahm Emanuel – a former Obama aid and mayor of Chicago, and a likely Democrat candidate for the presidency in 2028 – said last month “the days of taxpayers subsidizing Israel militarily, that’s over.”

Netanyahu sees Donald Trump as Israel’s most supportive ever US president. And he knows that there is no guarantee the next man or woman in the White House in less than three years will be as reliable a partner, especially if popular support for Israel continues to drop. He is hoping that transforming Israel from a recipient of US military aid into a partner in defense projects will help improve his country’s image with American voters. But some in the US point out that aid to Israel directly benefits the US, supporting an estimated 20,000 jobs in its defense companies – one reason why President Trump was not immediately supportive of Netanyahu’s idea of ending the military aid program. But now that this issue is firmly in the minds of US politicians, Netanyahu hopes transforming dependency on the US into a defense partnership will help restore Israel’s standing in the US as well as give a boost to Israel’s own defense industry.