On Friday morning, with 99.5 percent of the votes tallied, the Israeli Central Elections Committee published a final version of the Knesset seat count. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc secured the most seats in the country's parliament after Tuesday's election, though significantly fewer than in 2022. The bloc, according to The Times of Israel, will enter the Knesset with 53 seats, while the main opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot will hold 48. With both groups failing to win the 61 seats needed for a majority, tricky negotiations between the nine Zionist parties and the two Arab-interest parties will be needed to form a governing coalition.

Regardless of who becomes Israel's prime minister, Americans can be confident about one thing: Israel's next leader will likely keep making war in the Middle East with American money and American bombs.

Under Netanyahu, who has served 19 nonconsecutive years as prime minister, Israel has been engaged in controversial and expansive wars across the Middle East. Throughout these wars, the U.S. has armed and funded Israel. Although Israel received aid throughout the Cold War, the U.S. increased its obligations starting in FY 1999 by regularly renewing 10-year funding commitments. Under the current agreement between the two countries, which went into effect in FY 2019, the United States pledged to provide $38 billion in military aid to Israel through FY 2028, subject to congressional appropriations.  

A large component of this aid—$33 billion pledged under the current agreement, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS)—has come through Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants. These allow partner countries to purchase American weapons, with the costs "reimbursed" by American tax dollars. Data from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which manages U.S. arms transfers, show that from FY 2020 to FY 2024, almost $13 billion—90.5 percent—of U.S.-to-Israel arms transfers were paid for by American-issued FMFs. Last year, the CRS found that "annual FMF grants to Israel represent approximately 14% of the overall Israeli defense budget." 

Earlier this month, Al Jazeera reported that since Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the United States has approved $33.16 billion in arms transfers to Israel, almost all of which were funded by FMF grants. 

Netanyahu has said he plans to wean Israel off a donor-recipient aid system, preferring joint defense collaboration. The U.S. and Israel already jointly develop some weapons, such as the David's Sling and Iron Dome missile defense systems, but, as The Washington Post reports, the U.S. funds most of these projects. A CRS report from earlier this year explains how difficult it would be for Israel to transition away from U.S. assistance: "With a fleet of fighter aircraft that is almost entirely American-made and a missile defense architecture which relies on U.S. assistance," the CRS writes, "Israel may remain dependent for quite some time on U.S. supply chains and, in times of military operations, direct defensive U.S. military support."

Should an Eisenkot-led coalition come to power in the coming government negotiations, the prospect of America sending less money to Israel is slim as well. Eisenkot has been clear that his government would expect U.S. financial support, telling BizPortal earlier this week that he would keep seeking the $3.8 billion in annual aid the U.S. currently provides. He's also praised "[U.S. President Donald] Trump's decision to strike Iran together with Israel," telling the New York Post it was "courageous." 

Should he become the next prime minister, conflict between Israel and Iran, or with any of Israel's neighbors, is unlikely to be resolved, which, as the CRS report above indicates, comes at the cost of American taxpayers.

With over $32 trillion in debt held by the public, the United States clearly needs to cut spending. Military aid to highly developed foreign nations like Israel is an obvious place to start. However, given America's long history of signing checks for the country, combined with Trump's unwavering support, taxpayers hoping for such relief shouldn't hold their breath.

The post With or Without Netanyahu, Israel Will Want American Taxpayers To Keep Funding Its Wars appeared first on Reason Magazine.

The fundamental issue is Trump’s shredding of the model that made America the world’s leading country.

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