AIPAC-—American Israel Public Affairs Committee
U.S. Security Assistance to Israel-—Briefing Book
The United States has long defined Israel’s survival and security as important to its own national interests. Israel helps the United States meet its growing security challenges through close cooperation and a range of innovative technologies. Through executive commitment and legislative action, America provides Israel with annual security assistance that helps the Middle East’s only democracy defend itself—by itself—against mounting security threats.
History and Terms
The United States has supported Israel politically since its reestablishment in 1948. But it was not until the late 1960s that it began to regularly provide security assistance to the Jewish state. Since then, America has consistently provided Israel with security assistance to help it stay strong and deter its enemies.
U.S. security assistance to Israel promotes our national security and our economy, and helps our ally defend itself against growing threats.
Security Assistance: By means of its annual foreign aid, U.S. security assistance to Israel is the most tangible manifestation of American support for the Jewish state. Assistance primarily takes the form of funding for Israel to purchase the arms needed to defend itself from its adversaries.
QME: A core element of U.S. policy is to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME)—the ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat while sustaining minimal damages and casualties. In 2008, Congress wrote America’s longstanding commitment to Israel’s QME into law and required the president to continually assess whether it is being maintained.
Memoranda of Understanding: In 1998, the United States and Israel signed their first 10-year “Memorandum of Agreement on Security Cooperation” to increase security assistance to Israel while phasing out economic aid. Under the agreement, the United States committed to providing Israel $21.3 billion in security assistance. In 2016, America committed to provide $38 billion under a new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Serving American Interests
U.S. provides security assistance to key allies around the world. Current law ensures this aid can only be used for “internal security, for legitimate self-defense.”
Anchor of Stability: In an increasingly uncertain Middle East, Israel is the one stable democratic ally upon which America can consistently depend. Cooperation between the two countries in intelligence, homeland security, missile defense and counterterrorism has helped the United States meet its growing security challenges. U.S. support for Israel helps deter regional conflict by making clear to potential foes that they cannot defeat the Jewish state.
Israeli Innovation: As a result of the strong friendship between Israel and the United States, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the U.S. military share technologies and techniques that greatly benefit both nations.
Israel has pioneered cutting-edge technologies in cyber defense, unmanned vehicles, sensors and electronic warfare systems, and advanced defenses for military vehicles. In addition, Israeli battlefield medical technologies have saved countless American lives. The innovative use of U.S. military equipment by the IDF, coupled with shared know-how, has helped the U.S. military improve its own equipment and tactics.
Stockpiles: Established in the 1980s, the War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel program consists of up to $3.4 billion of U.S.-owned and -managed weapons and equipment stored in Israel for use by the U.S. military. The IDF may access these reserves during emergencies, if authorized by the U.S. government.
Crucial to Israel’s Security
Mounting Threats: The ongoing instability gripping the region directly threatens the Jewish state. To its north, Israel faces Hezbollah in Lebanon and a growing Iranian presence in Syria; to its south, Israel faces Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza while ISIS-affiliated terrorists roam the Sinai Peninsula; to its west, militant terrorist groups are gaining strength in the West Bank. Israel’s greatest threat remains Iran, which is attempting to surround the Jewish state with terrorist proxies while developing the capability to produce nuclear weapons.
Increasing Costs: To deal with the region’s mounting threats, Israel—a tiny nation the geographic size of New Jersey—has been forced to spend more on defense as a percentage of its GDP than any other nation in the industrialized world. The rising costs of advanced weaponry only compound Israel’s challenges. For example, a single F-35I “Adir” Joint Strike Fighter will cost Israel more than twice that of an F-16I fighter jet purchased under the first U.S.-Israel aid agreement in 1998.
THE WAY FORWARD
As part of its strategic alliance with Israel, the United States has agreed to provide security assistance through 10-year MOUs. Beginning in 2019, the new MOU stipulates an annual sum of $3.3 billion in foreign military funding and $500 million for cooperative missile defense. Congress must now fulfill this commitment by legislating full funding as called for in the MOU. Congress must also work to expand joint innovation, ensure Israel’s QME and consider upgrades to the value of U.S. stockpiles in Israel.
Click here to view a downloadable PDF: https://aipacorg.box.com/s/uawwyq8z73mxoejdgm3ozy66jn7bvygk
Biden and the Democrats are OK with arming foreign countries but grabbing guns from Americans is an obsession w/ them. The same “Congress” that gleefully tramples 2A rights, is hell bent on supplying weapons to foreign countries.
Not content w/ the mega billions already in his pocket, Zelensky now says
he wants US tax dollars to Ukraine “according to the Israeli model”......here’s what he means:
Congressional Research Service
US Foreign aid to Israel
60 page detailed report
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL33222/44
The concerned Israeli lobby made sure Congress is required by law to ensure that U.S. military aid in the Middle East region doesn’t damage Israel’s military superiority over its neighbors. That requirement enjoys broad bipartisan support and has served as a benchmark for ensuring Israel receives robust U.S. support.
Biden keeps gaslighting Americans about the “need” for
American foreign aid tax dollars to Ukraine and Israel.
Here’s why they DONT need it:
About $113.1 billion in tax dollars were authorized in 2022 for Ukraine, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Most of it–about $67.1 billion–was defense-related. The other $46 billion included:
<><>$26.9 billion for economic support;
<><>$7.9 billion for international disaster assistance;
<><>$6.6 billion in assistance for refugees;
<><>$1.5 billion for assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia;
<><>plus $3.1 billion for other non-defense spending.
US tax dollars helped Ukraine
<><>pay the salaries of 618,000 educators, 517,000 health workers, and 56,500 first responders
<><>helped sustain critical healthcare services,
<><>helped meet pension responsibilities for 9.8 million people,
<><>assisted 1.3 million internally displaced persons,
<><>provided housing assistance to 4.1 million people,
<><>provided social assistance to 240,000 low-income families
<><>helped subsidize 480,000 persons with disabilities,
<><>bought supplies for farmers,
<><>financed finding markets for small business.
Backstory: Since 1973, Israel has received more than $120 billion US tax
dollars in MILITARY assistance alone, including “three special aid” packages.
<><>billions for signing the Israel-Egypt peace treaty
<><>billions for Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai.
<><>billions for redeployment of Israeli forces
<><>rebuilding Israeli air bases in the Negev cost $5 billion.
Besides weaponry, Israel also receives economic and humanitarian foreign aid, which supports broad economic development and sociopolitical stability and can include non-military support related to the country’s pressing security needs.