The American left has discovered a number: $3.8 billion.

They repeat it with the solemnity of a catechism. The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion a year, they say, and therefore Israel’s military is an American project, Israel is an American dependency, and every Israeli military action is something Americans are personally paying for.

The argument is not merely tendentious. It is numerically illiterate.

Under the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, Washington provides Israel with approximately $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing and another $500 million for cooperative missile-defense programs. The agreement covers 2019 through 2028 and totals $38 billion over ten years. Much of the military financing must be spent on American defense products, meaning that a substantial portion of the money returns to U.S. defense manufacturers.

That is a serious commitment. Americans are entitled to debate it. But describing it as though the United States pays for Israel’s military is a childish distortion.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel’s military expenditure reached approximately $46.5 billion in 2024. Later........

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