Trump says US will stop paying Israel after year-end under deal with Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump has said he has made a deal with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under which Washington would no longer provide funding to Israel after the end of this year. He made the remarks on Fox News' Fox and Friends, after voting in the midterm elections had begun.
Trump said that on paying Israel, he and Netanyahu had made a deal: the US gives Israel $4bn a year, and they had agreed months ago to stop it. He said that by the end of this year the US would no longer be paying Israel, though it would still help Israel if it needed help.
It was not immediately clear what form of aid Trump was discussing.
Military aid to Israel, and US political campaign contributions from Israel's backers to candidates, have been a flashpoint for both Democrats and Republicans this year.
Harsh public criticism of Israel by US political leaders in recent years marks a dramatic shift from decades of staunch bipartisan backing.
In July, the US House of Representatives defeated an amendment to cut off aid to Israel, despite nearly half of Democrats supporting it — a vote seen as reflecting a growing rupture between US progressives and Israel over the war in Gaza.
The measure, offered as an amendment to a State Department spending bill by outgoing Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, an outspoken Republican critic of US policy in the Middle East, was defeated by 314 votes to 104.
