Key facts
- Trump said he would stop $3.8 billion in US military aid to Israel two years earlier than planned.
- US military aid is less than 10% of Israel's annual military budget, the report said.
- Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Israel should not choose sides in US politics.
- US Vice-President JD Vance cited the US relationship to Israel as one of four reasons voters deserted the Republican Party.
- Analyst Yaakov Katz said future funding, arms sales and joint projects could be slowed by a Democrat-controlled Congress.
- US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee signaled little shift in core American positions, calling other countries' sanctions irrational.
US midterm election results have set off debate in Israel over the future of the two countries' alliance, with opposition leaders blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a US official saying the shift is bigger than any single gesture. President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview that he would stop $3.8 billion in US military aid to Israel two years earlier than planned, a move Israel's president called a bolt from the blue.
Israel's relationship with the US was a campaign issue in races across America. Many Democratic candidates were sharply critical of Israel's actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and the costs of the joint US-Israeli war on Iran was a key issue for many voters. Trump blamed the Iran War for the Republican rout, and Vice-President JD Vance cited the US relationship to Israel as one of four key reasons voters had deserted the party.
Israeli political and security analyst Yaakov Katz told the BBC that Vance pointing the finger at the relationship might be worse than the midterms themselves. Katz said future funding, arms sales and joint military projects could be slowed or stalled by a Democrat-controlled Congress, even without the two-thirds majority needed to overrule Trump. He said Israel's air force relies on American-made planes and spare parts, and that a slower pace of missile-defense deliveries would change its calculations in a war.
The Israeli prime minister's office responded to the aid news several days later, saying the shift from US aid to partnership showed the strength and sophistication of the bilateral relationship. US military aid is less than 10% of Israel's annual military budget, according to the report.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee signaled little shift so far in core American positions, including on Israel's occupation of the West Bank, describing sanctions imposed by other countries as irrational and counterproductive. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told another Israeli channel that Trump would be in the White House for the next two years and that Israel could feel good about the US veto in the UN Security Council, but that it would be harder for Israel given criticism from both parties.
The debate comes less than two weeks after Israel's own parliamentary elections left neither government nor opposition with a clear majority. Discussions are taking place with the country's president, who will decide whether Netanyahu or his centrist rival, Gadi Eisenkot, gets the first chance to form a governing coalition. Eisenkot said in a social media post that under his leadership Israel would renew and deepen the US partnership, while Lapid said Israel should not choose sides in America and should work with everyone.