Khaberni - Israel is discussing with the United States the possibility of entering into a new military cooperation agreement that will last for 20 years and double the usual duration, according to Israeli and American officials on the American news site "Axios".
The current agreement, signed in 2016 during the term of former US President Barack Obama, expires in 2028. This agreement had a duration of 10 years.
Israel wants to finalize the new agreement during the next year. However, negotiations are complex from both technical and political perspectives, due to opposition from the "Make America Great Again" campaign against foreign aid, in addition to partisan concerns about Israel's conduct in the Gaza War.
In the past, three security agreements were signed each spanning 10 years to provide long-term US military aid to Israel, in 1998 ($21.3 billion), 2008 ($32 billion), and 2016 ($38 billion).
In 2024, during the Gaza War, the Congress and the administration of former President Joe Biden approved an emergency military aid package worth billions of dollars for Israel, which was added to the already existing memorandum of understanding.
Israeli officials hope that the next package will include larger annual aid. However, they are worried that the negotiations will be more difficult after the significant cuts made by the administration of current President Donald Trump to foreign aid.
Trump mentioned the US military aid to Israel during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in April last year.
At that time, Trump said, "We give Israel 4 billion dollars annually. That's a big amount. Congratulations by the way. It's very good. But we give Israel billions of dollars annually, billions."
The negotiations for the new security memorandum of understanding were delayed for some time due to the Gaza War, but preliminary discussions started in the last few weeks, according to Israeli officials and an American official.
