Following the announcement by President Donald Trump that the US will halt military aid to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the planned realignment of relations between the two countries. Israel and the United States are undergoing an important transition from financial support to an equal partnership, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated on Wednesday.
“Today Israel has a strong and stable economy, and Israel and the United States are making the important transition from aid to partnership,” reads a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office on X.
From aid to partnership 🇮🇱🇺🇸
https://t.co/YrI8FL26iA
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 11, 2026
The joint step taken by Netanyahu and Trump demonstrates the strength of the relationship between the two countries and their ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Trump had already announced on November 3 that the US would be ending its annual military aid to Israel, amounting to around four billion dollars. The decision had been made jointly with Netanyahu months earlier. Israel had by now become economically successful enough to manage without this support.
In early November, Israel Today had already reported on the announcement by the American president and its possible implications for relations between Jerusalem and Washington.
Netanyahu has been pursuing this goal for decades
In his most recent statement, the Prime Minister’s Office recalled that Netanyahu had already announced in 1996 his intention to gradually phase out the then-current American economic aid of 1.2 billion dollars per year. That goal was subsequently achieved.
Thirty years on, Israel is economically strong enough to also allow American military aid to be gradually phased out.
As early as May, Netanyahu had stated on the CBS program “60 Minutes” that he wanted to reduce American financial support to zero in the long term.
The Prime Minister’s international spokesperson, Doron Spielman, described the development on Thursday as Israel’s transition from dependency to partnership. Speaking to JNS, he called it a healthy process for both countries.
Over the past decades, Israel has not only grown stronger economically, but has also significantly advanced its military capabilities, its intelligence services, and its own defense industry.
Timeline for the end of military aid still open
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Monday that Trump wants to end American financing of Israeli arms purchases as soon as possible. Israel is now wealthy enough to acquire American weapons systems using its own resources.
Rubio also made clear that the exact timeline still needs to be negotiated. When asked whether Israel could manage without American military financing as early as 2027, he replied that in his assessment this was possible if Israel wanted it.
Discussions are also taking place about a new agreement between the two countries. This could include, among other things, the joint production of certain weapons systems.
Test of the Arrow 3 missile defense system, jointly developed by Israel and the United States, on July 28, 2019 in Alaska. Military-technological cooperation is set to continue even after the planned end of American military aid. Photo: Israeli Ministry of Defense.
The current American-Israeli military aid agreement was concluded during the administration of President Barack Obama. Since fiscal year 2019, it has provided annual payments totaling 3.8 billion dollars and is scheduled to run until the end of the American fiscal year 2028.
Trump’s announcement therefore does not yet mean that payments have already been halted. When and in what steps the existing agreement is to be replaced remains a subject of ongoing discussions between Jerusalem and Washington.
The Israeli government does not view the planned change as the end of its close security relationship with the United States. Rather, future cooperation is intended to be based more strongly on shared interests, technological development, and military collaboration.
This signals a fundamental shift in the relationship between the two allies after decades of American military aid. While financial support from Washington is set to decrease, Israel and the United States intend to continue their strategic cooperation.
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