Knesset committee urges Netanyahu to implore Trump to change part of US aid deal

[Right_in_Virginia]

Knesset committee urges Netanyahu to implore Trump to change part of US aid deal
JNS, May 22, 2018

Knesset members on Monday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that up to 22,000 workers in Israel’s defense industry could lose their jobs to the tune of a whopping $1.3 billion in annual losses if he does not convince U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse a clause in a military funding deal signed with the United States in 2016.

The aid package signed between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama provided Israel with $38 billion in military assistance for 10 years, starting in 2019. But one of the clauses would gradually reduce and then eliminate the ability for Israel to spend any of that funding in the Jewish state. Up until the signing, Israel was able to spend 26.3 percent of the funds in Israel.

They urged the prime minister to discuss the clause with Trump in the hopes that the more sympathetic administration would amend it to enable Israel to spend the aid money in country.


More:  https://www.jns.org/knesset-committee-urges-netanyahu-to-implore-trump-to-change-part-of-us-aid-deal/

[Right_in_Virginia]

Israel hopes Trump could ease rules for US-made military aid
Ynet News, May 22, 2018

Israeli lawmakers urged the government on Monday to reopen talks with the United States on a defense aid deal signed in 2016 in the hope that President Donald Trump might ease a requirement that American aid money be spent on US equipment.

Under the deal signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then US President Barack Obama, the United States would provide Israel with $38 billion in military assistance over 10 years, the largest such aid package in US history.

However, one component of the deal was to phase out a special arrangement that had allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the US aid on its own defense industry instead of on American-made weapons. All the aid will now have to be spent on US equipment by 2026.

Israeli lawmakers suggested that this requirement could be renegotiated now that Obama has been succeeded by Trump, who has broken with other past US policies by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem last week.


More:  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5267204,00.html

[Right_in_Virginia]

However, one component of the deal was to phase out a special arrangement that had allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the US aid on its own defense industry instead of on American-made weapons. All the aid will now have to be spent on US equipment by 2026.

Methinks this puts the President squarely between a rock and hard place. 

[endicom]

Methinks this puts the President squarely between a rock and hard place.

Maybe. Or maybe not if the change simply goes back to what is was before.