USA and Israel: Announcement on election day: Trump wants to stop military aid to Israel by the end of the year

Tel Aviv. On the day of the US midterm elections, Donald Trump caused a surprise in Middle East politics: The US President announced in a telephone interview with Fox News that he would end US military aid to Israel at the end of the year.

Trump claimed that he had made a deal with Israel's acting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We have agreed that we will stop doing this,” he said, referring to Israel’s $4 billion in annual support. "They're okay with it because they've become a very successful country. They don't need it." However, the USA would continue to help Israel if necessary. “You have been a great ally,” he concluded.

There is currently no confirmation of Trump's claim to have reached an agreement with Netanyahu. The Prime Minister himself initially did not comment. The Israeli press considers the US president's account to be "almost certainly false."

The ten-year agreement on US military aid provides Israel with four billion US dollars (almost 3.6 billion euros) annually. In 2016, a total of $38 billion was agreed for the years 2019 to 2028. A stop at the end of the year would therefore come around two years earlier than planned. However, contractually, an agreement can be terminated unilaterally.