Israel to get $38 billion in US military aid over 10 years

Netanyahu’s office confirmed in a brief statement that a deal had been reached, but offered no additional comment.

The U.S. has agreed to a new military aid deal with Israel that is the largest bilateral agreement of its kind in U.S. history. Over the last few years Congress approved an additional $500 million annually to be added to the original base sum, which made the total amount of military aid transferred to Israel annually approximately $3.5 billion.

Israel’s acting head of National Security, Jacob Nagel, is in Washington D.C., reportedly to sign a deal extending defense assistance to Israel for ten years.

Additionally, the deal will over time roll back the approximately 25 percent of the funds Israel may spend on defense equipment manufactured in Israel; instead, the money must be spent on the US defense industry.

The deal will eventually require Israel to use the funds to buy exclusively from American military vendors, a stipulation that has been a sticking point for both sides over months of negotiations.

The deal will represent the biggest pledge of United States military assistance ever made to any foreign party, according to officials on both sides.

Almost 10 months of drawn-out aid negotiations have underscored continuing friction between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu over last year’s USA -led nuclear deal with Israel’s arch-foe Iran, an accord the Israeli leader opposed.

Israeli officials have said predictability about USA aid is important to help its military plan ahead.

Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu has been famously fraught for years, and ties between the countries worsened significantly when the US and world powers struck a deal with a nuclear deal with Iran.

The new package for the first time will incorporate money for Israeli missile defence – setting the amount at $500 million a year – which until now has been funded ad hoc by Congress. U.S. lawmakers have in recent years given Israel up to $600 million in annual discretionary funds for this goal. But an announcement was quietly put on hold as objections were raised by a key pro-Israel lawmaker, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who had called for a more generous and less restrictive aid package, sources familiar with the matter said.

Last week, the US was incensed by a video Netanyahu released in which he equated criticism of settlement-building to support for “ethnic cleansing”. The previous 10-year agreement is set to expire in 2018.

President Barack Obama, right, shaking hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Nov. 9, 2015.