Israel seeks 20-year "America-first" security deal with the US, report says

The proposed deal would be more extensive than previous pacts and extend until the 100th anniversary of Israel’s independence, News.Az reports citing foreign media.

The current 10-year memorandum of understanding between the two countries — the third such agreement signed — expires in 2028. Signed under the Obama administration in 2016, it includes around $4 billion of aid to Israel annually.

With growing skepticism around foreign aid, including to Israel, in the Republican Party among those who subscribe to  US President Donald Trump’s largely isolationist “America First” policies, the next MOU faces challenges that the previous ones did not.

Discussions on the next MOU began in recent weeks, according to the Axios report, which cited Israeli and US officials, after a long delay because of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Israel proposed a 20-year deal that would end on the country’s centennial in 2048, and to appease those opposed to aid, it would allocate some of the funds for joint R&D, rather than direct military aid, Axios reported.

Among the projects touted would be the fields of defense tech, defense-related AI, and Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense project, an Israeli official told Axios.

“This is out-of-the-box thinking,” an Israeli official told Axios. “We want to change the way we handled past agreements and put more emphasis on US-Israel cooperation. The Americans like this idea.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the report in an interview with Australian TV host Erin Molan. “I don’t know what they’re talking about. My direction is the exact opposite,” he insisted.

“I think it’s time to ensure that Israel is independent,” he continued. “Understand that our military aid is like a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of what the US spent in Afghanistan or spent in the Middle East. It’s tiny. But I think that we have a very strong economy. We have a very strong arms industry. It’s true that even though we get what we get, which we appreciate, 80 percent of that is spent in the United States. It produces jobs in the United States. But nevertheless, I’d like to see a much more independent Israeli, an even more independent Israeli defense industry.”