By Humeyra Pamuk and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington would stop $4 billion in funding to Israel after the end of this year, but will still sell weapons to its close Middle East ally.
Speaking as US voters headed to the polls for midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress, Trump did not provide details and it was not immediately clear which funding he meant. He also did not explain how the funding would be stopped at the end of the year, given that the Memorandum of Understanding that provides $3.8 billion in US military aid to Israel each year does not expire until September 2028.
Conversations have been under way on how Washington’s assistance to Israel would evolve beyond that date.
Trump told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program that Israel no longer needed the funding and that some Democrats and left-wing politicians were using the US financial support to Israel as a talking point to criticize his fellow Republicans.
“Now, as far as paying Israel, Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal that we give Israel $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” Trump said. “We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel. Now we’ll help Israel if they need it,” he said.
It was unclear why Trump chose to announce on Tuesday a deal he said he made months ago.
Israel’s future leadership is uncertain after an October 27 election in which Netanyahu — who has allied himself tightly to US Republicans — lost his governing majority but denied his opponents a clear path to unseat him. The election results paved the way for what are expected to be protracted negotiations over a new government.
Neither the White House nor Netanyahu’s office responded to Reuters’ requests for comment.
US public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats believe the US is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20%, respectively, when the question was first asked in 2017.
Polls and nonpartisan analysts say that Democrats are likely to wrest control of the House of Representatives from Trump’s Republican Party in Tuesday’s elections. Control of the Senate remains uncertain.
CRITICISM OF ISRAEL
Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted, candidates critical of Israel are winning Democratic primaries and even moderate lawmakers are increasingly willing to challenge decades of US support for Israel.
In a key battleground race, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is vying to represent Michigan in the Senate. El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim to serve as a US senator, has opposed unconditional military aid to Israel, saying US funding should prioritize US citizens.
Trump said the left used the US funding as a “signal of unfairness” and that he could not allow that to happen. Underscoring the political nature of his comment, Trump specifically mentioned El-Sayed when explaining why he said Washington was stopping the money.
“Because they (Israel) don’t need it, and because why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it? It’s a bad, it’s a bad talking point,” Trump said.
Some members of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement have also become increasingly critical of Israel, accusing it of having misled the president — who campaigned in 2024 on a promise to avoid foreign military interventions — into believing Iran could easily be defeated in a war.
Congress passed a law in 2020 authorizing the funding for Israel, but the Senate and House must still pass appropriations bills every year to distribute and release the funds.
Netanyahu said in an interview with an Israeli television channel in October: “If you think we’re going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that’s tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won’t happen because America has changed.”
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Alexander Cormwell in Jerusalem; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Paul Simao)
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