Military aid to Israel: an increase of 25%

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The bad relations between president Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu create headlines but the defense officials know what is the value of Israel in the turmoil in our region.

The U.S. military aid to Israel will likely increase after 2017, from the current $3 billion a year to between $3.5 and $4 billion a year, according to both American and Israeli sources. Both sides conceded that the increase is related to the emerging nuclear deal between the P5+1 countries and Iran – and to the fact that Sunni states in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, will themselves see a major quantitative and qualitative increases in U.S. military aid to them.

U.S. sources told the Guardian that the United States and Israel are in an advanced stage of negotiating the new military aid package, and that the additions to the current being discussed would bring annual payouts to $3.6 billion to $3.7 billion on average.

Israeli sources told I-HLS that the pentagon fully understands the “new map” in the Middle East with country after country falling to the hands of the Islamic extremists.

The sources added that the increase in the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) is not the only sign of that understanding “the type of systems that the U.S. is and will be selling to Israel are another very clear proof that they know who is their partner in that sensitive region”.