Μake us preferred on Google President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has reached an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the $4 billion the United States sends Israel each year, with the funding ending after December. He did not give further details.
Speaking by phone to Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” as voting in the midterm elections got underway, Trump said the two leaders made the deal months ago. “We’ve already agreed that by the end of this year we won’t be paying Israel,” he said, adding that the US would still help Israel if it needed support and calling the country a great ally.
Trump said Israel was comfortable with the decision because it has become a very successful country and no longer needs the money. He also claimed the idea came from Netanyahu, who he said suggested it would be appropriate for Israel to stop receiving aid because he understood it had become a point of contention. Trump added that Israel, like Europe, is free to buy whatever weapons it wants from the US.
Unclear which funding is affected
It was not immediately clear which aid Trump was referring to. A memorandum of understanding that provides Israel with $3.8 billion in US military aid each year expires in 2028, and talks have been underway on what US assistance will look like after that.
A spokesman for Netanyahu said he was unaware of Trump’s remarks but would look into them. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Netanyahu has said publicly this year that he hopes to phase out US military aid within a decade. In a June letter to a US congressman, he wrote that Israel should shift from being an aid recipient to being a partner.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza, the US has sent $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel over two years, according to a paper by William D. Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
A political flashpoint
US aid to Israel, the war in Gaza, and campaign contributions from Israel’s supporters have become some of the most divisive issues in this year’s midterm races, drawing criticism from members of both parties. The shift marks a sharp break from decades of strong bipartisan support for Israel.
Public backing for Israel has declined since the Gaza war began, especially among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University poll found that 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats think the US is too supportive of Israel, compared with 16% and 20% when the question was first asked in 2017. Candidates critical of Israel have won Democratic primaries, and even moderate lawmakers have become more willing to question long-standing US policy.
In July, the House rejected an amendment to cut off aid to Israel by a vote of 314 to 104, even though nearly half of Democrats backed it. The measure was introduced by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican known for criticizing US policy in the Middle East.
Trump appeared to acknowledge the political angle. He said the left uses the well-known $4 billion payment as a sign of unfairness and that he did not want to give critics such an easy target.
Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, now a Trump critic, said on X that the move showed how the threat of Republican losses in the midterms changes minds, adding that it would not affect the day’s election results.
Oil prices fall
Brent crude dropped more than 3% to about $101 a barrel, its lowest level in over three weeks, as traders took Trump’s comments as a possible sign that the Iran war could end without further escalation. Trump and Netanyahu launched the war on Iran earlier this year, and it has increasingly drained US munitions stockpiles. The decline followed oil’s steepest one-day fall in three months on Monday, after Trump told NBC News he did not plan to attack Iran after the midterms.
Criticism in Israel
Netanyahu’s domestic opponents quickly seized on the announcement. Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, said ending US aid would seriously harm Israel’s security and quality of life. He argued that it comes at a time of record defense spending, when Israel needs to restock offensive weapons and rebuild air defenses worn down by a long war, and called it another major failure for Netanyahu.
What It Could Mean for Greece
None of the officials involved mentioned Greece, but the arrangement could have knock-on effects for Athens, which has become one of Israel’s closest defense partners in recent years.
The first consideration is Greece’s growing reliance on Israeli weapons systems. Israel and Greece signed a €3 billion ($3.5 billion) deal on August 31 under which Israel will build a multi-layered air defense system for Greece, known as “Achilles Shield.” Israel’s Defense Ministry described it as its largest-ever defense export agreement with Greece and one of the biggest defense deals in Israel’s history. Under the deal, Israel will supply Greece with the David’s Sling and SPYDER systems produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the BARAK MX system made by Israel Aerospace Industries, as well as MMR multi-mission radars.
Earlier this year, Israel also agreed to supply Greece with the PULS rocket artillery system, developed by Elbit Systems, in a deal worth €650 million ($750 million).
Without US funding, Israel’s defense sector may depend more on export revenue, which could make customers like Greece more valuable to Israel and strengthen Athens’ hand in future negotiations. Greek industry could also gain, since the Achilles Shield deal includes a 25 per cent domestic industrial participation clause, directing over 700 million euros to nearly 12 Greek defense firms.
On the other hand, Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan’s warning that Israel must replenish its weapons stocks and rebuild air defenses worn down by war raises questions about whether Israel’s own needs could compete with foreign orders. That could affect delivery schedules for Greek contracts, though no such delays have been reported.
The second consideration is the regional alliance between Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, which has developed with US backing through the so-called “3+1” format. Israel, Greece, and Cyprus signed a trilateral work plan for military cooperation for 2026, further deepening security coordination among Turkey’s regional rivals in the eastern Mediterranean. The three countries also agreed to intensify joint air and naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean in 2026, deepening defense cooperation closely watched by Turkey.
A shift in the financial relationship between Washington and Israel could prompt questions in Athens and Nicosia about how committed the US remains to the region. Trump framed the move as a sign of Israel’s strength rather than a cooling of ties, saying the US would still help Israel if needed. If that holds, the trilateral partnership may carry on largely unchanged. However, if the end of aid signals a broader US pullback, Greece and Cyprus may find their alliance with Israel taking on greater weight as a counterbalance to Turkey.
