Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in an interview with Australian journalist Erin Molan that Israel is seeking greater independence and less reliance on US aid.
Netanyahu denied an Axios report that Israel was attempting to score a 20-year security agreement with the US, noting that “my direction is the exact opposite.”
The Prime Minister recounted that when he first took up the position in 1996, he told the US Congress that Israel no longer needed the financial aid that it had been receiving and asked to phase it out. “Everybody gasped, ‘How dare he, he’s giving up billions of dollars.’ I was happy to do it and I was right to do it,” he said, and claimed that he wants to make Israel’s arms industry as independent as possible.
According to Netanyahu, “Our military aid is a fraction of what the US spent in Afghanistan or in the Middle East, it’s tiny. We have a very strong economy, a very strong arms industry, and even though we get what we get, 80% of that is spent in the US and produces jobs in the US.”
He stressed that “Israel does not ask others to fight for us. Israel is the one American ally in the world that says, ‘We don’t need boots on the ground, we don’t need American servicemen fighting on the ground for Israel or around Israel. We’re fine. We fight our own battles, but in doing so, we serve important American interests, like preventing countries that chant ‘Death to America’ from having nuclear bombs to throw at America.”
He reiterated that he is moving toward greater independence and noted, “I’ll probably have something to say about that very soon.”
Netanyahu said that Israel is already on the path to greater independence and noted that he will hold a meeting to discuss the matter.