Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu openly admitted that he wants to gradually end financial military support from the US.
“I want to reduce American financial support for military cooperation to zero.” – he said in an interview with the American station CBS.
This is quite a surprising declaration, considering the scale of cooperation between the two countries.
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“I don't want to wait.” Netanyahu with surprising words
Netanyahu emphasized that changes should start immediately, without regard to politics in Washington
“I don't want to wait for the next Congress. I want to start now.” – he said.
At the same time, he noted that the entire process would take about a decade, which would give Israel time to prepare for greater independence.
Israel's new strategy?
As the Prime Minister of Israel declares, Tel Aviv currently receives approximately $3.8 billion from the US annually as part of a long-term agreement. The United States agreed to provide Israel with military aid worth a total of $38 billion. in the years 2018-2028. However, this number may actually be much higher.
Despite this, the Prime Minister believes that the time has come to change the model of cooperation. As he noted, it is “absolutely the right time” to rethink the financial dimension of relations between the countries. However, such declarations may be just a political game by Netanyahu, because Americans are increasingly skeptical about supporting Israel.
Americans have an increasingly worse opinion of Israel
According to public opinion polls cited by Reuters, as much as 60 percent American adults today have an unfavorable opinion of Israel, and 59 percent does not trust Netanyahu on global issues. This is a clear increase compared to the previous year.
“The decline in support for Israel in the United States is almost 100 percent correlated with the geometric growth of social media,” said the Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu suggested that external actions may be behind the change in mood.
“A few countries have basically manipulated social media in a way that has harmed us greatly,” he believes.
He did not indicate specific countries, but stressed that he was not a supporter of censorship.
Israel and the US at war with Iran. When will the conflict end?
Netanyahu's declarations come during the ongoing conflict with Iran, which has not yet been resolved.
The Prime Minister emphasized in other statements that the conflict would last for some time.
“This is not something that will end tomorrow,” he said.
He pointed out that even weakening Iran does not guarantee an immediate end to the conflict.
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