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Netanyahu Backs Congressional Effort to End U.S. Military Aid to Israel
(Washington Post) Natalie Allison - In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem last week, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) handed him a draft House resolution that effectively called for the U.S. to stop providing military aid to Israel for free. "I like it," the prime minister replied after skimming the papers. "This is the direction I've been wanting to go for a long time. We want to stand on our own feet." On Wednesday, with Netanyahu's support, Stutzman, a steadfast Israel ally, introduced the resolution calling for the U.S. to develop a new memorandum of understanding between the two nations that would end the $3.8 billion in annual aid Israel receives and instead have the nation fund its own purchases of American weapons. In a letter to Stutzman on Monday, Netanyahu wrote that his country "appreciates the financial component of the military aid" the U.S. has provided. "The time has now arrived for us to move from aid recipient to partner." Josh Paul, a former State Department official involved in negotiations on the last U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, said the Israeli prime minister is "reading the room, seeing the very clear direction that American politics are going and asking how can Israel maintain the military-to-military relationship and the security cooperation relationship, but do so in a way that is sheltered from American politics - whether that's Congress or American public sentiment." On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote on social media that a "New MOU w/Israel ends aid & will be based on trade."