What does the U.S. get for $3.8 Billion to Israel?

Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here.

quote:

---

The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is not transactional, it is a long and vital partnership, but the next time you hear the tired question of "What does the U.S. get for $3.8 Billion to Israel," answer simply - RETURNS.

R – Research, Innovation, and the Combat Laboratory
Access to one of the world's most active laboratories for military innovation, where new technologies, concepts, and operational methods are developed, tested, and refined under real combat conditions. Combined with one of the world's leading defense technology and startup ecosystems, this environment generates technological advancements, operational insights, and innovation that would be difficult, expensive, and in many cases impossible to replicate through peacetime experimentation, exercises, simulations, or war games.

E – Economic Benefits
American jobs and manufacturing supported through purchases of U.S.-made military equipment, while strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base through joint production, co-development, and missile defense cooperation for the benefit of the U.S. military and American national security.

T – Technology
Access to military technologies refined in combat, from active protection systems and missile defense to counter-drone capabilities, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.

U – Unique Understanding of Modern Warfare
Battlefield lessons drawn from one of the world's most active conflict environments, providing insights into urban warfare, tunnel warfare, missile defense, drones, battlefield medicine, artificial intelligence, and modern combat. These lessons help the United States adapt and prepare without having to learn them first through American casualties, American mistakes, or American wars.

R – Regional Stability Through Alliance
A capable ally helping deter common adversaries and maintain stability in one of the world's most strategically important regions while remaining willing and able to fight alongside the United States when necessary.

N – National Security Intelligence
Intelligence that helps prevent attacks against Americans, American forces, and American interests while improving U.S. understanding of shared threats, adversaries, and emerging security challenges.

S – Strategic Freedom to Focus on China
Greater freedom for the United States to concentrate military, diplomatic, and economic resources on long-term competition with China in the Indo-Pacific while helping preserve a favorable balance of power in the Middle East.

---

quote:

---

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard the question: Why does the United States give Israel $3.8 billion in military aid? Or what does the United States get in return for our $3.8 billion? If genuine, these are fair questions, and U.S. taxpayers deserve serious answers. Foreign assistance should always be judged through the lens of American interests.
Firstly, discussions about aid to Israel often begin with the assumption that the United States simply gives money away and receives little in return. That is not true and rests on an assumption that ignores both how the aid/assistance works and what the United States gains from one of its closest allies. In fact, the better way to view U.S. assistance to Israel is not as a transfer of money but as a long-term strategic investment. Then, a better question is whether that investment produced returns for the United States. Looking at intelligence cooperation, military innovation, technological development, strategic access, and shared security interests, the answer is clearly yes.
Many of the benefits America receives from Israel would continue even if the aid disappeared tomorrow. Israel shares intelligence, develops military technologies, and confronts common adversaries because the two countries share interests, threats, and a decades-long strategic partnership. The assistance did not purchase those benefits. It helped build and strengthen a strategic partnership that now generates enormous value for both countries. The relevant question is not just whether America gets something for its investment. The question could also be whether any other recipient of American military assistance provides as much in return.
The United States provides military assistance through a program called Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which allows partner nations to purchase American-made military equipment. Egypt receives approximately $1.3 billion annually in military aid. Jordan receives almost half a billion. We maintain these programs because alliances are expected to advance American interests. Yet Israel occupies a category of its own. No other recipient of American military assistance provides the same combination of economic, security, military, innovation, and strategic returns. If foreign military assistance is meant to serve American interests, then there should be clear answers to what the alliance delivers and returns on those investments.
Many of the debates about the U.S.-Israel relationship start with a misunderstanding of where the money goes. Under the current Memorandum of Understanding, Israel receives approximately $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing and another $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs. Almost all of the military assistance provided to Israel is spent in the United States. Historically, approximately 74 percent of U.S. military assistance to Israel was required to be spent on American-made defense goods and services. Under a special arrangement known as Offshore Procurement, Israel was permitted to spend up to 26 percent of its Foreign Military Financing allocation within its own defense industry. That exception is being phased out.

---