Israel's president calls Trump's early termination of military aid 'a lightning strike'

Israeli President Izhak Herzog expressed great concern when U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned that he would stop U.S. military aid for Israel.

According to CNN, President Herzog said at a meeting with the Yashar Party, led by opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently highly likely to become the next prime minister, on the 5th (local time), "I am very concerned about the issue of U.S. aid," and "It came like a bolt from the blue." He then demanded that aid be continued until 2028 in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries.

He emphasized, “We must form a government and we must not repeat elections.”

The idea is that in order to respond to the external issue of the suspension of U.S. aid, political uncertainty must be resolved quickly by forming a new government.

President Trump announced on Fox News on the 3rd, the day of the U.S. midterm elections, that he would end aid to Israel this year.

He expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, “We give more aid to Israel than any other country, but they no longer need it,” and added, “When people say, ‘Why don’t you give $4 billion to every country?’ it becomes a bad source of political attack.” It is said that the Democratic Party's hard-core progressive wing was at a disadvantage in the election by making aid to Israel a political issue.

In 2016, during the Barack Obama administration, the two countries signed a military support memorandum of understanding to provide a total of $38 billion over 10 years for fiscal years 2019 to 2028. The annual support amount is $3.8 billion, consisting of $3.3 billion in military financial support for the purchase of American weapons and $500 million in support for missile defense cooperation.

If President Trump's comments are correct, support under the memorandum of understanding will end two years early.

In a media interview in January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that U.S. military aid should be gradually reduced over 10 years to foster an independent weapons industry instead of U.S. aid.

It is in this context that President Trump said in a Fox News interview on the 3rd, "Prime Minister Netanyahu proposed (suspension of aid) first, and we agreed after several months of discussion."

CNN reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not make a public statement on President Trump's comments.

In this regard, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he was seeking clarification on how future aid would be handled and said, "I do not believe that support for Israel is a politically harmful factor for conservatives and the Republican Party."

The announcement to suspend aid came as Israel was having difficulty forming the next government after the general election.

As a result of President Herzog's two-day consultation with political parties in the new parliament, Eisenkot was recommended as a candidate for prime minister by members of 67 of the 120 seats in the Knesset (parliament).

However, the formation of a stable coalition government cannot be guaranteed just because Eisenkot also received a majority recommendation.

Of the 67 seats for which he was recommended, 19 are seats held by Arab parties. Whether the recommendation of a prime ministerial candidate will actually lead to participation in a coalition government or support for the government is a separate issue, so cooperation with these parties has emerged as a key to forming a government.

President Herzog will decide on the 8th who will be given the right to form a government.