Defense authorization bill puts US-Israel relations on more solid footing

For more than a decade, American taxpayers have subsidized some combination of Israel’s expansion on the West Bank and financial support for its ultra-Orthodox community.

Maybe you didn’t realize we are funding those things, but money is fungible. Israel could fund its own defense needs by reducing its support for those other programs, but Washington’s financial support lets Jerusalem avoid making the hard political budgetary choices between domestic and national security programs that every major Western country, including the U.S., must make each year.

Bowing to the reality of the American public’s growing disenchantment with Israel and particularly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, Netanyahu announced that his country no longer would seek American financial assistance for its military programs.

When the current ten-year memorandum of understanding for U.S. financial assistance ends in fiscal 2028, Israeli policymakers will have to make those difficult budgetary choices.

At the same time, however, both countries are seeking to enter a new phase of their relationship — one that essentially treats the Israelis as a contributing partner to mutual defense and intelligence needs. Talks commenced earlier this month between Washington and Jerusalem regarding a new defense framework that would transform the relationship into what is being termed a “reciprocal partnership.”

The House and Senate Armed Services committees have taken initial steps to codify that new partnership in the Fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. They envision a “U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” that incorporates key elements of the U.S.-Israel........

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