Netanyahu: New U.S. Military Aid Package Enters Final Phase

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the U.S. military aid package to the Israeli army will be finalized "in the coming weeks." According to Israeli media, Netanyahu announced this news in the Knesset on July 18, stating that this American aid package is for a ten-year period. Although Netanyahu did not mention the amount of the aid package, Israeli media had previously reported that it would be at least forty billion dollars for the decade from 2017 to 2027. The U.S. agreed to increase military aid to Israel shortly after the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, due to Netanyahu's significant dissatisfaction with it. While Israel had been receiving three billion and one hundred million dollars in military aid annually from the U.S., reports indicate that the U.S. is willing to increase this amount to four billion dollars per year. Netanyahu had requested five billion dollars annually; he previously stated that Israel could wait to secure a larger portion of its military needs. However, Israeli media reported that the finance and defense ministers had recently advised Netanyahu to finalize the aid package while Obama is still in the White House. Obama's presidency ends in five months. The White House also explicitly emphasized that it is better for the Israeli government not to wait for the next U.S. president, as "none of the presidents in U.S. history have responded to Israel's military needs and security cooperation as much as Barack Obama." Despite the unprecedented coldness and sometimes tension in Netanyahu's relations with Obama, Israel acknowledges that Obama's eight-year presidency was the peak of military and security cooperation between the two countries, and Washington has shown great generosity in providing aid to Israel. Recently, Lockheed Martin delivered the first advanced F-35 fighter jet to the Israeli Air Force in Texas, in a ceremony attended by Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli army will complete its first squadron of vertical take-off F-35 jets, which have only been in the possession of the U.S. military until now, by December. Israel is set to receive 35 of these jets in the near future. The largest portion of foreign aid in modern U.S. history has gone to Israel. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden recently stated that Americans might ask why this aid is not given to the American people. However, in his speech to the Knesset on Monday, Netanyahu implicitly rejected Biden's remarks, stating that the majority of Americans still support Israel. Netanyahu also mentioned that the continued presence of Israeli military forces in the West Bank has benefits for the Palestinian Authority. According to Netanyahu, given the recent years' situation in the Middle East, where many countries have faced collapse, if the Israeli army leaves the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority will also face collapse—"just as happened in Gaza." Netanyahu stated that Palestinians must abandon the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and negotiate directly with Israel in a "realistic" manner to establish a Palestinian state. Netanyahu's remarks came as Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas called for international support for his government's political actions to gain independence in the absence of a peace outlook during an African leaders' summit on July 27. African leaders also condemned Israeli settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank in their final statement from the summit in Kigali, Rwanda, supporting the independence of the Palestinian state and calling for the lifting of the Gaza blockade.