00:00Israel has long vowed to reduce its reliance on the United States.
00:04Currently, Israel receives about $3.8 billion in aid each year from the United States,
00:09which represents approximately $138 billion, was set for the period from 2018 to 2028.
00:16But now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to begin a process that he hopes will
00:22complete a decade-long transition by re-establishing strategic ties with the United States on a new
00:27footing. The Public Announcement Netanyahu made the idea public in January, saying that lawmakers in
00:35his country and President Donald Trump were surprised by the initial proposal. In an interview
00:40aired on CBS on Sunday, Netanyahu stated that Israel wants to wean itself off American aid over the next
00:4610 years, a move that could be a turning point in relations between the two countries. Many Americans
00:52see this as Israel becoming less dependent on Washington. Netanyahu told CBS that he wants
00:58to cut U.S. financial support, a component of our military cooperation, to zero. Questions and
01:05concerns. But experts say the fragile security situation across the region is not working in
01:11favor of this plan. There are questions about whether Israel can be fully integrated into the
01:16region's growing economy without U.S. support. While the United States has agreed, in principle,
01:22to the idea of cutting special aid, analysts also see the cuts as potentially reducing U.S. influence
01:28over future Israeli military operations. For the United States itself, progressive groups are
01:34increasingly resentful of foreign intervention and the cost of American lives and resources.
01:39Shifting Public Opinion in the U.S.
01:42A report by the U.S. National Security Agency found that 60% of American adults now have a favorable
01:48view
01:49of Israel, an increase of nearly 20% since 2022. However, according to a Pew Research Center poll
01:56released in April, social media has been a major factor in the decline of U.S. public support for
02:02Israel. The largest driver of this decline is related to the war in Gaza, which began after
02:08Palestinian militants launched an attack on Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people.
02:15Israel's military response has raised serious humanitarian concerns. The Palestinian Authority
02:20has said that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past 10 months.
02:26Tens of thousands of people have died in Israeli strikes on Hamas, which many Western countries
02:31consider a terrorist organization.
02:33The situation in Gaza. Despite a ceasefire that has been in effect since October 2025,
02:40international aid agencies say Gaza's health system is now in shambles. Most of the population
02:46has been displaced, and essential medical supplies are in short supply. There are growing questions
02:52about whether the Gaza Strip could slip back into open war, as talks to reach a permanent peace deal
02:58and violence continues. Since the start of the conflict, more than 854 people have been killed
03:04in Gaza. While the ceasefire remains in place for now, according to regional governors, more than half
03:11of those surveyed in a recent poll said in April that the war in Gaza has left a terrible record.
03:16This sentiment is why Senate Democrats voted to cut off arms sales to Israel in April.
03:22Political pressure in the United States
03:25Rahm Emanuel, a former chief of staff under Barack Obama, who has been ambitious and is expected to
03:30challenge for the Democratic presidential nomination in the future, has also been pushing
03:34to end U.S. military funding for Israel. He has said that the days of taxpayers subsidizing Israel
03:40are over.
03:42Secretary of State Marco Rubio's comments, which appeared to acknowledge that the United States
03:47has been pushing for action against Iran because of Israel's plans to attack that country, have also
03:53caused divisions among Trump supporters, although the president later aligned with Rubio.
03:59Former Vice President Joe Biden also suspended the delivery of missiles to Israel in 2024,
04:05as the United States tried to stop an Israeli operation in the southern city of Rafah.
04:10Netanyahu said at the time that the delay in delivery was due to misunderstandings.
04:19Netanyahu has stated that Israel is now in the process of transitioning from a reliance on U.S.
04:24funding to becoming a modern military power with a proven arsenal of weapons that have been tested
04:29in battle. Meanwhile, most countries in the world are buying Israeli military equipment.
04:35The United States is also pushing other allies, such as NATO members, to strengthen their own
04:41militaries and become more independent of the United States.
04:45Support for the plan.
04:47Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said in January that the U.S.-Israeli alliance
04:53is trying to become self-sufficient and should be applauded. He argued that the billions of
04:58dollars that have been poured into Israel should be redirected back into the U.S. military.
05:03Deep military ties.
05:05The U.S. and Israeli militaries have deep ties. The joint effort to wage war against Iran,
05:11which began on February 28th, has coincided with U.S. influence in the development of Israel's
05:17air defense system. Israel has been using modified F-35 fighter jets, the new generation of U.S.-made
05:23aircraft, one of the most advanced in the world. There is also a close relationship between the two
05:29countries' intelligence services and the CIA. Moreover, most U.S. funding is designated for
05:35Israel to buy U.S. equipment. Although Israel is allowed to use some of its aid to buy equipment
05:41from domestic companies, Israel's economy has been booming in recent years. Its defense industry has
05:47flourished despite the conflict that began in 2023. Expert Perspectives
05:53Yossi Meckleberg is a senior consultant at the think tank Chatham House, a U.K.-based research
05:59organization. He notes that U.S. aid to Israel began when Israel was already a poor country,
06:05and that aid has long made up the largest share of the country's defense budget.
06:10Meckleberg said that if Israel were to spend less on defense, and if a ceasefire agreement across the
06:16Middle East could be translated into a peace deal with better relations with its Arab neighbors,
06:20then the transition could work. A less painful transition away from U.S. funding would be more
06:27likely, experts say, as the United States wants to focus on providing support to local companies
06:32rather than manufacturing arms. A former ambassador's view
06:37Daniel Shapiro, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel in the late 1990s and early 2000s,
06:44said that U.S.-Israeli relations would have been much healthier without Israel's reliance on the United
06:49States. Martin Indyk, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel between 2011 and 2017, has claimed that
06:56the shift away from American aid could weaken American influence in the Middle East. He argues
07:02that Israel would still struggle to fight any long-term war without the United States, and that any such
07:08war would likely be a large one, according to forecasts from the Institute for National Security
07:12Studies, INSS. Recent military equipment transfers. The Israeli think tank INSS reported that in 2025,
07:21the Israeli government learned that the United States had sent 90,000 tons of military equipment,
07:27including missiles and rockets, to Israel over the past year and a half. The ongoing war between the
07:33United States and Israel against Iran has also caused a significant stockpile of equipment,
07:39such as air defense systems, to be moved into the region.
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