How Much Money Has Israel Received From The Us? Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since its inception, and money-central.com is here to provide you with the details of this financial relationship, exploring its historical context, current trends, and future implications while helping you enhance your financial knowledge. Explore how this aid impacts the economic landscape, security dynamics, and geopolitical strategies of both nations, examining how funds are allocated and used, considering the impact on regional stability and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict while accessing resources for financial planning, investment strategies, and economic analysis.
1. What is the Total Amount of U.S. Aid to Israel?
Since its founding, Israel has received approximately $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance from the United States, making it the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid. While the United States has also provided considerable foreign aid packages to other Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt and Iraq, Israel’s level of support stands apart due to a long history of commitment to Israel’s security and aligned foreign policy interests in a strategically important region.
U.S. Aid to Israel
1.1 Historical Overview
The U.S. relationship with Israel began in 1948 when the United States was the first country to recognize the provisional government of the state of Israel. Over the decades, this relationship has deepened, marked by significant financial support. This support reflects many factors, including the U.S.’s commitment to Israel’s security and the countries’ shared foreign policy interests in a volatile and strategically important part of the world.
1.2 Types of Aid Provided
The aid provided by the United States to Israel can be broadly categorized into economic and military assistance:
- Economic Assistance: From 1971 to 2007, the United States provided Israel with considerable economic assistance to support its development.
- Military Assistance: Currently, nearly all U.S. aid to Israel goes to support its military, which is among the most advanced in the region. This aid is crucial for maintaining Israel’s security and military capabilities.
1.3 Current Agreements
The United States has provisionally agreed via a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028. This MOU ensures a consistent and substantial level of support for Israel’s defense needs.
2. How is U.S. Military Aid to Israel Used?
The majority of U.S. military aid to Israel, approximately $3.3 billion annually, is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. These funds are specifically designated for Israel to purchase U.S. military equipment and services, enhancing its defense capabilities.
2.1 Foreign Military Financing (FMF) Program
Under the FMF program, Israel is required to use the grants provided to procure military equipment and services from the United States. As of October 2023, the Biden administration reported that Israel had nearly six hundred active FMF cases, totaling around $24 billion, illustrating the extensive military cooperation between the two countries.
2.2 Procurement and Defense Budget
U.S. aid reportedly accounts for approximately 15 percent of Israel’s defense budget. In addition to the FMF program, Israel also purchases U.S. military products outside this framework, further strengthening its defense infrastructure.
2.3 Missile Defense Programs
Another significant component of U.S. aid, $500 million annually, is allocated for Israeli and joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs. These programs foster collaboration on the research, development, and production of missile defense systems used by Israel, including:
- Iron Dome: Initially developed solely 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.
- David’s Sling: A medium-range missile defense system.
- Arrow II: A long-range missile defense system.
Iron Dome Missile Defense System
2.4 Domestic Procurement
Historically, Israel has been permitted 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 in the coming years, focusing primarily on U.S.-sourced equipment.
3. What are the Conditions and Restrictions on U.S. Aid to Israel?
While the United States provides substantial military aid to Israel, there are conditions and restrictions attached to ensure compliance with U.S. and international law.
3.1 Congressional Oversight
Transfers of U.S. military equipment to Israel, like those to other foreign governments, are subject to relevant U.S. and international law. The President must notify Congress before selling major weapon systems or services valued above a certain dollar threshold to foreign powers. Lawmakers are then allowed a period to review the sale.
3.2 Dollar Thresholds for Review
For transactions with Israel (and other close U.S. allies), the threshold that triggers a fifteen-day congressional review ranges from $25 million to $300 million, depending on the defense articles or services. Congress can block a sale through a joint resolution, although this has never occurred.
3.3 National Security Emergency
In special cases, the President can bypass the congressional review if they deem that a national security emergency exists. President Biden has used this expedited waiver process for both Israel and Ukraine. Smaller transactions that do not 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, a red line enshrined in the Leahy Law. This law prohibits the provision of arms to recipients deemed likely to commit serious human rights violations. Critics have alleged that the United States has not applied the Leahy Law with regard to Israel as it has with other Middle Eastern countries.
3.5 Use of Weapons
Any military aid that the United States provides to recipients must only 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. For instance, the Ronald Reagan administration banned transfers of cluster munitions to Israel for several years in the 1980s after it determined that Israel had used them on civilian targets during its invasion of Lebanon.
3.6 Self-Defense
Israel has agreed to use U.S. weapons only in self-defense. While Biden administration officials stated in mid-October 2023 that they had not placed further limitations or constraints on how Israel uses U.S. weapons, they emphasized that Israel should observe international law.
3.7 National Security Memorandum
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.
3.8 Follow-Up Report
In May, 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.” Days later, the White House said it was pausing a shipment of large bombs to Israel ahead of a pending assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, although it noted it would continue other military assistance.
4. What Military Aid Has the U.S. Provided Since October 7?
Since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in direct military aid to Israel. This includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.
4.1 Post-October 7 Assistance
Some analysts have reported that Israel received $17.9 billion in U.S. military aid during this period, a figure that additionally accounts for the cost to the U.S. Defense Department of replenishing the stock of weapons provided to Israel.
Since October 7, the Biden administration has reportedly made more than one hundred military aid transfers to Israel, although only six have met the aforementioned congressional review threshold and been made public.
4.2 Expedited Deliveries and Stockpiles
The Israeli military has reportedly received expedited deliveries of weapons from a strategic stockpile that the United States has maintained in Israel since the 1980s. Shortly after Hamas’s attack, the United States also agreed to lease Israel two Iron Dome missile defense batteries that Washington had previously purchased from the country.
4.3 Types of Military Aid
The extraordinary flow of aid has included tank and artillery ammunition, bombs, rockets, and small arms. In April 2024, news reports indicated that the Biden administration was considering new military sales to Israel valued at more than $18 billion, which would include fifty F-15 fighter aircraft, although the shipments would not arrive for years.
The Israeli military is also reportedly purchasing some high-tech products, such as surveillance drones, directly from smaller U.S. manufacturers.
F-15 Fighter Aircraft
5. What is Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME)?
Qualitative Military Edge (QME) has been a conceptual backbone of U.S. military aid to Israel for decades and was formally enshrined in U.S. law in 2008.
5.1 Legal Framework
The 2008 law 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.” 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 Ensuring QME
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 fifty.
6. Why is There Growing Public Scrutiny of U.S. Aid to Israel?
Public scrutiny of U.S. aid to Israel has grown due to concerns over the humanitarian impact of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and the broader implications for regional stability.
6.1 Shifting Public Opinion
While Israel received widespread support from the West immediately following Hamas’s attack on October 7, pro-Israel sentiment among some groups in the United States and many other countries has weakened as Israel’s campaign against Hamas has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and exacerbated a humanitarian crisis.
6.2 Poll Findings
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.
6.3 International Concerns
Some 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 heavy air and ground assaults on Gaza, as well as its alleged obstruction of humanitarian aid to the densely populated enclave.
6.4 Allegations of Genocide
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. In May, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged both Hamas and Israeli leaders with multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity.
6.5 Divergent Views Among Age Groups
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 sixty-five and older) and weakest among younger adults (ages eighteen to twenty-nine).
7. What are the Political and Diplomatic Considerations?
The political and diplomatic landscape surrounding U.S. aid to Israel is complex, involving considerations of regional stability, human rights, and U.S. foreign policy objectives.
7.1 Criticisms and Warnings
While Biden has been an ardent supporter of Israel’s right to self-defense and continues to supply Israel with essential military support via aid and weapons sales, 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.
In December 2023, Biden warned that Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza risked costing Israel its international support. Meanwhile, some lawmakers have sought to condition U.S. military aid to Israel or to block sales altogether.
7.2 Pausing Aid Shipments
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 that risked violating the laws of war. The White House has also spoken out against what they view as Netanyahu’s lack of planning for postwar Gaza.
7.3 Support for Israeli Government
The Biden administration rallied behind the Israeli government in late May after ICC investigators applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over allegations of war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories during the latest war against Hamas and possibly before. The White House called the ICC’s decision “outrageous” and “profoundly wrong-headed.”
7.4 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 have been protecting merchant shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden against regular Houthi attacks.
8. What are the Long-Term Implications of U.S. Aid to Israel?
The long-term implications of U.S. aid to Israel are multifaceted, affecting the region’s balance of power, the prospects for peace, and the strategic interests of both countries.
8.1 Strains in the Relationship
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. Critics say the settlements violate international law and undermine prospects for a future state for Palestinians.
8.2 Reevaluating U.S. Aid
In recent years, some U.S. and Israeli analysts have said that U.S. aid to Israel should be reevaluated because Israel is now a wealthy country with one of the most advanced militaries in the world. They argue that modern Israel is more than capable of providing for its own security, and the U.S. aid unnecessarily distorts the bilateral relationship and the countries’ respective foreign policies.
8.3 Calls for Reduction
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 a series of bilateral agreements on security cooperation, a move he says would benefit both countries and help normalize their relations. The late Martin S. Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and CFR Distinguished Fellow, also called for reductions in U.S. aid.
8.4 Impact on Defense Industry
Some experts argue that U.S. aid actually weakens Israel’s defense industrial base while serving primarily as a guaranteed revenue stream for U.S. defense contractors.
8.5 Support for Continued Aid
On the other hand, supporters of continued aid say that it fosters ongoing, important collaboration between U.S. and Israeli defense industries and experts, and in the end helps the countries counter shared threats in the Middle East, particularly Iran. They argue that U.S. aid remains a vital and cost-effective expenditure that enhances U.S. national security and should not be reduced or conditioned.
Map of the Middle East
9. Alternative Perspectives on U.S. Aid to Israel
Different perspectives exist regarding the efficacy and impact of U.S. aid to Israel, reflecting diverse geopolitical and ethical considerations.
9.1 Strategic Alliance
Proponents of U.S. aid to Israel emphasize the strategic importance of the alliance between the two countries. They argue that continued aid is essential for maintaining regional stability and countering common threats, such as Iran and extremist groups.
9.2 Human Rights Concerns
Critics of U.S. aid to Israel often raise concerns about human rights and international law. They argue that providing unconditional aid to Israel may enable actions that violate international norms and exacerbate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
9.3 Economic Impact
Some economists suggest that U.S. aid to Israel has significant economic implications for both countries. They explore how the aid affects Israel’s economy, defense industry, and overall development, as well as the U.S. defense sector and foreign policy objectives.
9.4 Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations play a crucial role in the debate over U.S. aid to Israel. Discussions often revolve around moral obligations, justice, and the potential impact of the aid on the lives and livelihoods of people in the region.
10. What is the Future of U.S. Aid to Israel?
The future of U.S. aid to Israel remains uncertain, with ongoing debates about its necessity, conditions, and long-term impact.
10.1 Potential Shifts in Policy
Changes in U.S. administrations, geopolitical dynamics, and domestic political considerations could lead to shifts in policy regarding aid to Israel. These shifts may involve changes in the amount of aid provided, the conditions attached to it, and the overall strategic objectives of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
10.2 Evolving Geopolitical Landscape
The evolving geopolitical landscape in the Middle East, including the rise of new actors, the changing dynamics of regional conflicts, and the shifting alliances, could influence the future of U.S. aid to Israel. The need to adapt to these changes may lead to adjustments in the nature and scope of the aid provided.
10.3 Domestic Political Pressures
Domestic political pressures in both the United States and Israel could also shape the future of U.S. aid. Public opinion, lobbying efforts, and the priorities of political leaders can all play a role in determining the level and nature of U.S. support for Israel.
10.4 Long-Term Strategic Goals
The long-term strategic goals of both the United States and Israel will be a key factor in determining the future of U.S. aid. Whether the focus remains on military assistance, economic cooperation, or diplomatic engagement, the evolving needs and priorities of both countries will guide the direction of the relationship.
Understanding the financial dynamics between the U.S. and Israel is essential for anyone interested in international relations, Middle Eastern politics, and U.S. foreign policy, and money-central.com offers a comprehensive guide to help you navigate these complex issues and enhancing your grasp of financial matters.
U.S. and Israeli Flags
FAQ: U.S. Aid to Israel
1. How much total aid has Israel received from the U.S.?
Since its founding, Israel has received approximately $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance from the United States.
2. What is the annual military aid provided to Israel?
The United States has provisionally agreed to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028 under a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
3. How does Israel use U.S. military aid?
Most of the aid is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services.
4. What is the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program?
The FMF program provides grants for Israel to procure military equipment and services from the United States, enhancing its defense capabilities.
5. What is the Leahy Law and how does it affect U.S. aid to Israel?
The Leahy Law prohibits the U.S. from providing security assistance to foreign governments or groups that commit gross human rights violations.
6. What is QME and why is it important?
QME (Qualitative Military Edge) requires the U.S. to maintain Israel’s ability to defeat any credible military threat while sustaining minimal damage and casualties.
7. Has U.S. aid to Israel been paused or restricted recently?
In early 2024, the Biden administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel due to concerns over civilian deaths in Gaza.
8. What are some criticisms of U.S. aid to Israel?
Some critics argue that U.S. aid weakens Israel’s defense industry, enables actions violating international law, and distorts bilateral relations.
9. What are the arguments in favor of continued U.S. aid to Israel?
Supporters argue that it fosters collaboration between U.S. and Israeli defense industries and enhances U.S. national security.
10. How has public opinion on U.S. aid to Israel shifted recently?
Recent polls show that American adults are divided on U.S. military aid to Israel, with support stronger among older adults and weaker among younger adults.
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