Trump says US will stop giving Israel aid after year-end — SkimNews
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- Trump said he and Netanyahu made a deal "months ago" to stop the $4 billion a year the US pays Israel by the end of this year, adding "Now we'll help Israel if they need it," in remarks made after voting in the midterm elections began.
- Abdul El-Sayed, the Michigan Senate candidate and vocal critic of US support for Israel, was the political foil: Trump said "Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed," citing the criticism as his rationale.
- Netanyahu brought the cut-off to Trump himself, the president said, arguing that Israel's prime minister understands aid is one of Israel's points of contention with US voters.
- State Department did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment, and neither Netanyahu's office nor Israel's foreign minister confirmed the move; it was not immediately clear what form of aid Trump was discussing, though other outlets' headlines specify military aid.
- Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, called it a "November surprise" and attributed the move to undercutting criticism of US Israel policy from progressive Democrats like El-Sayed and from critics within the Make America Great Again movement, while stressing Congress appropriates the money and Trump cannot end it unilaterally.
- Quinnipiac University found in a June poll that 48 percent of voters and 66 percent of Democrats believe the US is too supportive of Israel, up from 16 and 20 percent respectively in 2017 — part of a sharp break from decades of bipartisan backing.
- Thomas Massie's amendment to cut off Israel aid was defeated in the House 314-104 in July despite nearly half of Democrats supporting it, and Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that the cutoff "isn't going to change today's election results."
Why it matters: The $4 billion a year in question is appropriated by Congress, and the House rejected an aid-cutoff amendment 314-104 in July, so Trump's announcement alone cannot halt the payments. Halkett described the timing as an attempt to blunt criticism from El-Sayed and the MAGA right, while leaving the mechanism for ending the money unresolved.
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