Israel Seeks 20-Year Military Aid Deal With the US

Under the current 10-year deal, Israel gets at least $3.8 billion per year, and Israeli officials are looking to increase that number

by Dave DeCamp | November 13, 2025 

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/11/13/israel-seeks-20-year-military-aid-deal-with-the-us/

Israel is seeking a 20-year military aid deal with the US and is looking to increase the annual amount of military assistance it receives from Washington, Axios reported on Thursday.

A 20-year deal would double the usual term for US-Israel military aid agreements. The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), negotiated under the Obama administration, was the third 10-year military aid deal between the two countries.

The current MOU, under which the US provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid each year, expires in 2028, and the Axios report said that Israeli officials hope to have a replacement deal in place over the next year. Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided significantly more military aid to Israel to support the genocidal campaign in Gaza and other Israeli military operations in the region.

According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, in the two years following the October 7 attack, the US government spent at least $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel and another $9.65 billion to $12.07 billion on wars in Yemen, Iran, and other military operations in the region in support of Israel.

According to Axios, initial discussions between US and Israeli officials on a new MOU began in recent weeks. Israeli officials are worried that it may be more complicated to negotiate due to growing criticism of Israel within the US, including among President Trump’s MAGA base, and for that reason, they have proposed so-called “America First” provisions for the deal.

One proposal the Israelis made was to use some of the funds for joint US-Israeli research rather than for direct military aid. “This is out-of-the-box thinking. We want to change the way we handled past agreements and put more emphasis on US-Israel cooperation. The Americans like this idea,” an Israeli official told Axios.

The idea is to make the argument that the deal would benefit the US military as well as Israel. But any agreement that involves the US footing the bill for more aid to Israel will face significant criticism as skepticism of the US-Israel relationship continues to grow among Americans.

“There is no such thing as ‘America first’ tweaks to such a deal,” Jon Hoffman, a research fellow for foreign policy at the Cato Institute, wrote on X in response to the news. “The Israelis want a 20yr MOU and will likely ask for an increase to current $3.8b they receive annually. This is the epitome of America LAST. Israel is a strategic liability—walk away.”