How Much Money Do We Give To Israel? The United States has long been a steadfast supporter of Israel, offering substantial financial assistance. At money-central.com, we break down the numbers and explore the reasons behind this significant aid package, ensuring you have all the financial information you need. Discover the factors influencing U.S. commitment, including security concerns, shared foreign policy objectives, and arms sales.
1. What Is the Total Amount of U.S. Aid Given to Israel?
Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving approximately $310 billion, adjusted for inflation, in total economic and military assistance. While the U.S. has provided substantial aid to other Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Iraq, Israel remains the primary beneficiary.
1.1. Historical Context of U.S. Aid to Israel
The United States provided significant economic assistance to Israel from 1971 to 2007. Today, nearly all U.S. aid is directed towards supporting Israel’s military, which is the most advanced in the region. According to research from New York University’s Stern School of Business, in July 2025, the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security is a cornerstone of this aid.
1.2. Current Aid Agreements
The United States has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028. This agreement underscores the ongoing financial commitment.
1.3. Supplemental Aid Packages Since October 7, 2023
Since the start of Israel’s conflict with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the U.S. has approved legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Israel. This includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024, consistent with the current MOU, and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.
1.4. Additional Estimates of Recent Aid
Some analysts, including those from Brown University, estimate that Israel received $17.9 billion in U.S. military aid during this period. This figure includes the cost to the U.S. Defense Department of replenishing the stock of weapons provided to Israel.
2. How Does Israel Utilize U.S. Financial Aid?
The majority of U.S. aid to Israel, approximately $3.3 billion annually, is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. In October 2023, the Biden administration reported that Israel had nearly 600 active FMF cases, totaling around $24 billion.
2.1. Use of FMF Funds
Israel uses FMF funds to procure advanced military technology and equipment from U.S. defense contractors, enhancing its defense capabilities. This ensures Israel maintains a qualitative military edge (QME) in the region.
2.2. Domestic Procurement
Historically, Israel has been allowed to use a portion of its FMF aid to buy equipment from Israeli defense firms, a benefit not granted to other recipients of U.S. military aid. However, this domestic procurement is being phased out.
2.3. Percentage of Israel’s Defense Budget
U.S. aid accounts for approximately 15 percent of Israel’s defense budget. Israel also purchases U.S. military products outside of the FMF program.
2.4. Missile Defense Programs
An additional $500 million per year is allocated for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs. This collaboration includes research, development, and production of systems like the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow II.
Iron Dome missile defense system providing protection
2.5. Iron Dome Development and Production
While the Iron Dome was initially developed by Israel, the United States has been a production partner since 2014. U.S. military contractor Raytheon manufactures Tamir interceptor missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome at its facilities in Arizona.
3. What Are the Conditions and Restrictions on U.S. Aid to Israel?
Transfers of U.S. military equipment to Israel are subject to relevant U.S. and international laws. The president must notify Congress before selling foreign powers major weapon systems or services valued above a certain dollar threshold, allowing lawmakers a period to review the sale.
3.1. Congressional Review Thresholds
For transactions with Israel (and other close U.S. allies), the threshold that triggers a 15-day congressional review ranges from $25 million to $300 million, depending on the defense articles or services.
3.2. Blocking a Sale
Congress can block a sale through a joint resolution, though this has never occurred. The president can bypass the congressional review in special cases if they deem a national security emergency exists.
3.3. Expedited Waiver Process
President Biden has used this expedited waiver process for both Israel and Ukraine. Smaller transactions that don’t meet the dollar threshold do not require congressional review.
3.4. Leahy Law
The United States cannot provide security assistance to foreign governments or groups that commit gross human rights violations, as outlined in the Leahy Law. In February 2023, the Biden administration announced it would not provide arms to recipients deemed likely to commit serious human rights violations.
3.5. Allegations of Non-Application
Some legal scholars and critics have alleged that the United States has not applied the Leahy Law to Israel as strictly as it has with other Middle Eastern countries.
3.6. Monitoring End Use
Any military aid provided by the United States must be used according to agreed-upon terms and conditions. The U.S. government is responsible for monitoring the end use of the equipment it provides.
3.7. Historical Restrictions
The Ronald Reagan administration banned transfers of cluster munitions to Israel for several years in the 1980s after determining that Israel had used them on civilian targets during its invasion of Lebanon.
3.8. Self-Defense Requirement
Israel has agreed to use U.S. weapons only in self-defense. In mid-October 2023, Biden administration officials stated they had not placed further limitations or constraints on how Israel uses U.S. weapons but emphasized that Israel should observe international law.
3.9. National Security Memo
In February 2024, Biden issued a national security memo requiring recipients of U.S. military aid to provide written assurances that they would observe international law in their use of the aid and facilitate the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance in areas of armed conflict where the U.S. military aid is being used.
3.10. Follow-Up Report
In May 2024, the administration issued a follow-up report that found it “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used U.S. weapons since October 7 “in instances inconsistent with its IHL [International Humanitarian Law] obligations.”
3.11. Paused Shipment
Days later, the White House paused a shipment of large bombs to Israel ahead of a pending assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, while noting it would continue other military assistance.
4. What Military Support Has Been Provided Since October 7?
Israel has been using American-made weapons against its adversaries, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, for decades. Since October 7, the Biden administration has reportedly made more than one hundred military aid transfers to Israel, though only six have met the congressional review threshold and been made public.
4.1. Expedited Deliveries
The Israeli military has received expedited deliveries of weapons from a strategic stockpile maintained by the United States in Israel since the 1980s. Shortly after Hamas’s attack, the U.S. also agreed to lease Israel two Iron Dome missile defense batteries that Washington had previously purchased from the country.
4.2. Types of Aid
The extraordinary flow of aid has included tank and artillery ammunition, bombs, rockets, and small arms. In April 2024, news reports indicated the Biden administration was considering new military sales to Israel valued at more than $18 billion, including 50 F-15 fighter aircraft, though the shipments wouldn’t arrive for years.
4.3. High-Tech Purchases
The Israeli military is also reportedly purchasing high-tech products, such as surveillance drones, directly from smaller U.S. manufacturers.
5. What Is Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME)?
QME has been a conceptual backbone of U.S. military aid to Israel for decades, formally enshrined in U.S. law in 2008. It requires the U.S. government to maintain Israel’s ability “to defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damage and casualties.”
5.1. Basis of QME
QME is based on NATO military planning vis-a-vis a potential conflict with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War.
5.2. Requirements Under the 2008 Law
Under the 2008 law, the United States must ensure that any weapons it provides to other countries in the Middle East do not compromise Israel’s QME. In several cases, this has required the United States to provide Israel with offsetting weaponry as part of larger regional arms sales.
5.3. Access to Advanced Weapons
QME has also ensured that Israel is the first in the region to receive access to the most sophisticated U.S. military weapons and platforms, such as the F-35 stealth fighter, of which Israel has 50.
F-35 stealth fighter enhancing military capabilities
6. Why Is There Growing Public Scrutiny of U.S. Aid to Israel?
Following Hamas’s attack on October 7, Israel initially received widespread support from the West. However, pro-Israel sentiment among some groups in the United States and many other countries has weakened as Israel’s campaign against Hamas has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and exacerbated a humanitarian crisis.
6.1. Public Opinion
According to a March 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center, most Americans (64 percent) held favorable views of the Israeli people, while a slight majority (51 percent) viewed the Israeli government unfavorably.
6.2. Concerns Over Civilian Casualties
U.S. and foreign leaders, the United Nations, human rights and activist groups, and other parties have voiced growing concern over the past year about Israel’s air and ground assaults on Gaza, as well as its alleged obstruction of humanitarian aid.
6.3. Israel’s Defense
Israel has stated that the high civilian death toll is a result of Hamas using civilians as “human shields.”
6.4. International Court of Justice
In December 2023, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide, a claim which Israel and the United States both denounced as unfounded.
6.5. International Criminal Court
In May, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged both Hamas and Israeli leaders with multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity.
6.6. Divergence in Views
Recent polls suggest that American adults are divided in their views of U.S. military aid to Israel, with a significant divergence among age groups. Support for military aid to Israel appears strongest among older respondents (ages 65 and older) and weakest among younger adults (ages 18 to 29).
7. What Are the Criticisms and Defenses of U.S. Aid to Israel?
While Biden has been an ardent supporter of Israel’s right to self-defense and continues to supply essential military support, he and some members of U.S. Congress have been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war and his government’s planning for postwar Gaza.
7.1. Biden’s Warning
In December 2023, Biden warned that Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza risked costing Israel its international support. Some lawmakers have sought to condition U.S. military aid to Israel or block sales altogether.
7.2. Paused Shipment Acknowledgment
In early 2024, the Biden administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel, effectively acknowledging that Israel was using American-made weapons in a manner that resulted in civilian deaths in Gaza and risked violating the laws of war.
7.3. Lack of Postwar Planning
The White House has spoken out against what they view as Netanyahu’s lack of planning for postwar Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated in May 2024 that Israel is on a trajectory to potentially inherit an insurgency or a vacuum filled by chaos if it leaves Gaza.
7.4. ICC Intervention
The Biden administration rallied behind the Israeli government after ICC investigators applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over allegations of war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories. The White House called the ICC’s decision “outrageous” and “profoundly wrong-headed.”
7.5. U.S. Military Presence
The Biden administration has expanded the already large U.S. military presence in the Middle East to protect U.S. installations and ships, as well as to help defend Israel. U.S. forces helped Israel neutralize two separate Iranian missile and drone attacks in April and October 2024 and has been protecting merchant shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden against Houthi attacks.
7.6. Pre-War Strains
Prior to the war, the U.S.-Israel relationship had suffered some strains over the rhetoric and policies of Netanyahu’s government, including its plans to curb the Israeli Supreme Court’s powers and its approval of more Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
7.7. Two-State Solution
The so-called two-state solution has been a long-running U.S. foreign policy goal. Some U.S. lawmakers have raised these criticisms in the debate over U.S. aid to Israel during the war in Gaza.
7.8. Reevaluation Calls
In recent years, some U.S. and Israeli analysts have suggested that U.S. aid to Israel should be reevaluated because Israel is now a wealthy country. They argue that modern Israel is capable of providing for its own security, and U.S. aid unnecessarily distorts the bilateral relationship.
7.9. Alternative Suggestions
CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook wrote in May 2024 that U.S. military aid should be phased out over ten years and replaced with bilateral agreements on security cooperation. The late Martin S. Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, also called for reductions in U.S. aid, stating that the U.S.-Israel relationship would be healthier without this dependence.
7.10. Weakening Defense Industrial Base
Some experts argue that U.S. aid weakens Israel’s defense industrial base while primarily serving as a guaranteed revenue stream for U.S. defense contractors.
7.11. Support for Continued Aid
Supporters of continued aid assert that it fosters collaboration between U.S. and Israeli defense industries and helps counter shared threats in the Middle East, particularly Iran. They maintain that U.S. aid enhances U.S. national security and should not be reduced or conditioned.
7.12. Message to Enemies
CFR Senior Fellow Elliott Abrams wrote in September 2023 that ending U.S. military aid would signal to Israel’s enemies that Israel’s greatest friend was stepping away.
8. How Does U.S. Aid to Israel Compare to Other Countries?
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance. The United States has also provided large foreign aid packages to other Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt and Iraq, but Israel stands apart. The U.S. aid to Israel has soared to its highest in decades amid Israel’s ongoing conflicts.
8.1. U.S. Aid to Other Countries
While the U.S. provides aid to many countries globally, the level of support to Israel is significantly higher compared to most. This reflects the unique strategic relationship and historical commitments.
8.2. Key Recipient
Israel has historically been a key recipient of U.S. aid due to shared strategic interests, strong political ties, and the U.S. commitment to ensuring Israel’s security in a volatile region.
9. What Are the Potential Future Scenarios for U.S. Aid to Israel?
The future of U.S. aid to Israel is subject to ongoing debate and may evolve based on geopolitical developments, shifts in U.S. foreign policy priorities, and changes in public opinion. The potential scenarios range from maintaining the current level of aid to gradual reductions or conditioning aid based on specific policy changes.
9.1. Impact of Policy Changes
Future policy changes in either the U.S. or Israel could significantly impact the level and conditions of U.S. aid. Shifts in government leadership and priorities can lead to re-evaluations of the strategic alliance and financial commitments.
9.2. Conditional Aid Scenarios
Some lawmakers and analysts have proposed conditioning aid based on factors such as human rights records, adherence to international law, and progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such conditions could alter the dynamics of aid distribution and utilization.
9.3. Strategic Realignment
Geopolitical shifts, such as changes in regional alliances or the emergence of new threats, could prompt a realignment of U.S. strategic interests and, consequently, the aid allocation to Israel.
10. How Can You Stay Informed About U.S. Aid to Israel?
Staying informed about U.S. aid to Israel requires monitoring multiple sources, including government reports, academic research, news articles, and policy analyses. Following these sources can provide a comprehensive understanding of the financial, political, and strategic dimensions of the aid relationship.
10.1. Government Resources
Official reports from the U.S. State Department, Congressional Research Service, and other government agencies offer detailed data on aid allocations, policy changes, and strategic rationales.
10.2. Academic Research
Universities and research institutions often publish studies on the economic and political impacts of U.S. aid. These studies can offer in-depth analyses and diverse perspectives on the aid relationship.
10.3. News Media
Reputable news organizations provide ongoing coverage of policy debates, legislative actions, and geopolitical events related to U.S. aid.
10.4. Policy Analysis
Think tanks and policy institutes offer analyses of the strategic implications of U.S. aid, evaluating the impacts on regional stability and security.
U.S. aid to Israel fostering ongoing collaboration between defense industries
Are you looking for more in-depth information and expert advice on managing your finances? Visit money-central.com for comprehensive articles, financial tools, and personalized guidance. Make informed decisions and achieve your financial goals with our resources.
FAQ Section
Q1: What is the total amount of U.S. aid given to Israel to date?
Israel has received approximately $310 billion in U.S. foreign aid since its founding, adjusted for inflation, making it the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. This substantial aid package reflects the long-standing strategic alliance and commitment to Israel’s security.
Q2: How is the majority of U.S. aid to Israel used?
Most of the U.S. aid, around $3.3 billion annually, is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which mandates that Israel use these funds to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. This ensures Israel maintains a qualitative military edge in the region.
Q3: Are there any restrictions on how Israel can use U.S. military aid?
Yes, there are several restrictions. Israel has agreed to use U.S. weapons only for self-defense, and the U.S. government monitors the end use of the equipment provided. Additionally, U.S. law prohibits providing aid to foreign governments that commit gross human rights violations.
Q4: How does U.S. military aid enhance Israel’s defense capabilities?
U.S. military aid enables Israel to procure advanced military technology and equipment, strengthening its defense infrastructure. This includes missile defense systems like the Iron Dome, as well as fighter aircraft and other advanced weaponry.
Q5: What is the QME, and how does it impact U.S. aid to Israel?
The Qualitative Military Edge (QME) is a principle enshrined in U.S. law that requires the U.S. to ensure Israel maintains the ability to defeat any credible military threat. This principle guides the provision of U.S. aid, ensuring Israel has access to the most advanced military technology.
Q6: Has the U.S. ever placed conditions or restrictions on aid to Israel?
Yes, historically, there have been instances where the U.S. has placed restrictions on aid. For example, the Reagan administration banned transfers of cluster munitions to Israel for several years in the 1980s. Recently, the Biden administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel due to concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.
Q7: How has public opinion influenced U.S. aid to Israel?
Public opinion plays a significant role. While there is generally favorable sentiment towards the Israeli people, growing concerns over civilian casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have led to increased scrutiny and calls for conditioning aid.
Q8: What alternative suggestions have been proposed for U.S. aid to Israel?
Some analysts have suggested phasing out military aid over time and replacing it with bilateral agreements on security cooperation. Others argue that the aid should be conditioned on progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Q9: How does U.S. aid to Israel compare to aid given to other countries in the Middle East?
While the U.S. provides aid to other countries like Egypt and Iraq, Israel remains the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid. The level of support to Israel is significantly higher due to the unique strategic relationship and historical commitments.
Q10: How can I stay informed about the evolving dynamics of U.S. aid to Israel?
To stay informed, monitor official government reports, academic research, news articles from reputable sources, and policy analyses from think tanks. This will provide a comprehensive understanding of the financial, political, and strategic dimensions of the aid relationship.
Contact Us
For more information, visit money-central.com or contact us at:
Address: 44 West Fourth Street, New York, NY 10012, United States
Phone: +1 (212) 998-0000
Website: money-central.com
