Despite Israel’s recent promise to eliminate all tariffs on U.S. goods, President Donald Trump has so far refused to eliminate his new 17% tariff on the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House earlier this month, attempting to persuade Trump to reduce or eliminate this tariff.
Trump’s reply? “We already give Israel so much money.”
Mr. Trump, the United States doesn’t give Israel aid; it makes an extraordinarily high-return investment.
It’s true, the United States provides Israel $3.8 billion in aid each year, plus billions more over the last year and a half due to the current war in the Gaza Strip that followed the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7. But this aid isn’t really aid at all. It’s an investment that returns billions of dollars more than its cost in benefits to U.S. security and defense industries. American taxpayers can rest assured that this investment delivers a far greater return than that of U.S. aid granted to any other country.
U.S. support for Israel is crucial for securing American interests in the Middle East because Israel’s enemies—Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis—are also America’s enemies. Israel often does the dirty work of combating these enemies so America doesn’t have to. Furthermore, when Washington does act directly in the Middle East or elsewhere, it often relies on Israeli intelligence, battle-hardened experience and military cooperation to do so.
U.S. support for Israel delivers technological and economic benefits for both countries. Most of this fiscal backing, for example, goes toward buying American military equipment, supporting tens of thousands of American defense jobs.
Arguments on the right and left of the American political spectrum against continued U.S. investment in Israel just don’t stand up to scrutiny. U.S. support for Israel doesn’t contradict American interests in any way, nor does the United States exercise undue influence over Israel because of the support we give it. But suspending investment in Israel, as a contingent of Congress members has proposed, would compromise U.S. security, financial stability and Middle East strategic interests.
If Trump wants to bolster the U.S. economy and prevent unnecessary expenses, he will reduce tariffs on Israeli goods and increase U.S. investment in Israeli military capability and technological innovation.
U.S. investment in Israel helps protect both countries from our mutual enemies. All enemies who seek to destroy Israel also want to destroy America, not to mention the rest of Western civilization. Indeed, the ultimate goal of Iran and its proxies is to create a global Islamic caliphate. Oftentimes, Israel has saved America the trouble of having to militarily intervene directly to combat mutual enemies. For example, Israel’s air attack on Iran last year wiped out much of its missile-production capabilities, compromising Iran’s ability to manufacture missiles that can be used by it and its proxies to attack the Jewish state, U.S. bases in the region, and Arab allies of the United States.
The U.S. relies heavily on Israeli intelligence and experience to conduct military operations. Israel is a world leader in cybersecurity and intelligence gathering, providing the United States with a priceless feed of classified information about Iran, Syria, Russia, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. In fact, according to former ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Israel is the most productive external source of military intelligence for the United States, exceeding all NATO countries combined.
It was the work of Israel’s Mossad, for example, that retrieved the archives on Iran’s nuclear program, exposing the Islamic Republic’s intention to build nuclear weapons. Israel has also assisted in foiling anti-U.S. terrorism and attempts to topple pro-U.S. Arab regimes. Gen. George Keegan, a former chief of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, remarked: “I could not have procured the intelligence [received from Israel] with five CIAs.” Note that the annual budget of the CIA is about $15 billion, many times more than the United States grants Israel annually.
Israel also shares its battle experience with the United States. For instance, Israel’s top experts have trained U.S. special forces on neutralizing car bombs, suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
U.S. investment in Israel delivers vast technological and economic benefits. Per bilateral agreements, Israel must spend 70% of U.S. financial assistance on American military equipment, directly supporting more than 20,000 jobs in the United States and indirectly supporting thousands of other jobs. Much of the military technology used by the United States was developed in Israel. The Iron Dome, for example, which was invented in Israel but produced in America, is now a part of the U.S. Army’s defense system. Israel is also second only to the United States as an innovative hub of American commercial high-tech, hosting world-class research and development centers of some 250 U.S. high-tech giants, such as Intel, Google and Microsoft.
Arguments against stopping financial support for Israel don’t hold water. American far-leftist politicians like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently tried to halt investment in Israel in the Senate, argue that it contravenes American interests, but it’s quite the opposite. Israel is one of America’s strongest allies globally, and no other U.S. ally works as hard militarily to protect America’s Middle East interests or defeat our enemies as Israel.
Even better, unlike foreign countries like South Korea and Japan, which both host tens of thousands of American troops, Israel has never requested American boots on Israeli soil, nor will it ever.
Finally, consider Ethiopia, Jordan and Egypt, which, along with Israel, are among the top five U.S. financial-aid recipients. They make virtually no positive contributions to America, but rather absorb billions of U.S. dollars to resolve their own deficits and dysfunctionality.
U.S. tariffs will harm Israel’s economy and make Israel weaker, which contravenes American interests. Trump’s tariffs also harm the strong, mutually beneficial relationship between the United States and Israel. Damage to U.S.-Israel ties only buttresses our mutual enemies, who believe they can take advantage of tensions between the two countries.
If Trump wants to make the United States stronger and more financially efficient, he could do no better than to increase investment in Israel’s military power.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).