JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to "taper off" Israeli dependence on American military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from the U.S.
"I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years," Netanyahu told the Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering "down to zero," he said, "Yes."
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel "very deeply" appreciates "the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we've come of age and we've developed incredible capacities."
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the U.S. and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13% last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that "we need not wait ten years" to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
"The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the U.S. military," Graham said. "I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable."
Envoy tapped for Trump’s Gaza board meets senior Palestinian official
The former U.N. envoy expected to help lead Donald Trump's so-called Board of Peace for Gaza met a top Palestinian Authority official on Friday as the U.S. president pushes ahead with his plan for the enclave's future.
Trump is expected to announce the composition of the board this month, possibly as early as next week, a U.S. official said. Portrayed as part of a transitional government, the board is an important component of Trump's phased plan to halt the war between Israel and Hamas.
The first phase of Trump's plan, which included a ceasefire and hostage release deal, has been shaken by issues including Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds of people, a refusal by Hamas to disarm and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Although the two sides accuse each other of breaching the deal, Trump says he wants to move on to the second phase, a progression that would entail the establishment of the Board of Peace and a yet-to-be-agreed deployment of peacekeeping forces.
Nickolay Mladenov, the former U.N. Middle East envoy who is expected to represent the board on the ground, met senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official Hussein al-Sheikh in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, the Palestinian leader said on X.
The two men discussed "the situation in the Gaza Strip, ways to move to the second phase, and mechanisms for implementing (Trump's) plan," Sheikh said.
Mladenov was not expected to meet PA President Mahmoud Abbas, a source familiar with the matter said. Under Trump's plan, the PA would eventually take control of Gaza from the Board of Peace.
Israel has rejected any involvement of Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but has also opposed rule by the PA, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
On Thursday, Mladenov met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his top advisers in Jerusalem, Netanyahu's office said in a statement. Netanyahu reiterated Israel's position that Hamas must be disarmed and Gaza should be demilitarised, in line with Trump's plan, the statement said.
