Netanyahu wants to wean Israel off US military support
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to rid Israel of US military support within a decade as his country seeks to strengthen ties with Gulf states.
“I want to reduce American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have, to zero,” Netanyahu told CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Netanyahu said Israel receives about US$3.8 billion ($5.2 billion) in US military aid annually. The United States has agreed to provide a total of US$38 billion ($52 billion) in military aid to Israel from 2018 to 2028.
But Netanyahu said it was “absolutely” the right time to reset the US-Israeli financial relationship.
“I don’t want to wait for the next Congress,” he said.
“I want to start now.”
Israel has long had a bipartisan consensus in the US Congress on military aid, but support from lawmakers and the public has weakened since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.
According to a March Pew poll, 60 percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, and 59 percent have little or no confidence that Netanyahu will do the right thing on world affairs.
Both percentages increased by seven points compared to the previous year.
Netanyahu said the decline in support for Israel in the United States is “almost 100 percent related to the geometric rise of social media.”
He said many countries, which he did not identify, were “basically manipulating” social media in a way that “hurts us badly,” even though he personally does not believe in censorship.
Support for US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu’s close ally, has also waned since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28.
The war led to rising gasoline prices, which contributed to US inflation rising on an annual basis in March to its highest level since May 2023.
A major factor behind high fuel prices has been Iran’s restriction of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil normally passes.
Netanyahu said Israeli planners realized Iran’s ability to close the strait only after the war began.
“It took them a while to understand how big the risk was, and now they’re realizing it,” he said.
Netanyahu declined to discuss Israel’s military plans or timetable in Iran, but touched on potential consequences if Iran’s leadership changes.
“If this regime is really weakened or overthrown, I think that would be the end of Hezbollah, the end of Hamas, probably the end of the Houthis, because the entire scaffolding of the terrorist proxy network that Iran has built is collapsing,” he said.
When asked whether it was possible to overthrow the Iranian regime, Netanyahu said: “Is it possible? Yes. Guaranteed? No.”
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