Contradicting Trump, Netanyahu’s office says Israel will ‘gradually’ move off US military aid

In his second statement on the issue since US President Donald Trump said that American military aid to Israel would end this year, caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Jerusalem will “phase out” assistance from Washington.

“In 1996, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would gradually phase out American economic assistance, which stood at $1.2 billion,” says his office. “He followed through on that commitment.”

“Thirty years later, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel’s economy is strong enough to gradually phase out American military assistance as well,” the PMO continues.

It frames the shift away from aid as a joint move by the two leaders. However, while Netanyahu has spoken publicly and repeatedly about ending US military assistance to Israel, he has talked about doing so gradually over the next decade — not all at once as Trump has announced.

“Today, Israel has a strong and stable economy, and Israel and the United States are taking a significant step toward transitioning from assistance to partnership,” says the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Netanyahu outlined this direction as early as May,” says his office, “in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, when he said: “I want to gradually reduce American financial aid to zero.”

The PMO notes that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that moving off of aid was “a step that the Israelis themselves proposed to us.”

“The joint initiative by Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Trump demonstrates the strength of the alliance between the two countries and its ability to adapt to changing circumstances,” says the premier’s office.