Public support for continued American assistance to the Jewish state has been in decline, according to various surveys
The US will stop providing $4 billion in annual military assistance to Israel starting next year, President Donald Trump has said. West Jerusalem supposedly does not need the money anyway, and the issue is exploited by the “left” to generate bad publicity for the US government at home, he told Fox & Friends on Tuesday as Americans were heading to the polls for the midterm elections.
Trump stated he had reached an agreement on the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the president, the prime minister raised the issue himself.
“We give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it. We’ve been doing it for years. I’ve been doing it, but Israel is a very thriving country. They don’t need it,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox. “We made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” he stated, adding that Washington would “keep it going” if West Jerusalem still needed assistance.
‘Bad talking point’
Trump was referring to the sum provided by the US as part of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding reached between Israel and the administration of then President Barack Obama. The White House called the deal for Washington to pay a total of $38 billion to the Israeli military over 10 years “the largest single pledge of military assistance in US history.” The agreement was due to expire in 2028. By the time Trump announced ending the scheme, the annual tranches were to be spent entirely on US-made weapons.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: rt.com
