Explaining his support for ending military aid to Israel, US President Donald Trump suggests he doesn’t want to give ammunition to critics who knock Washington for giving more to the Jewish state than any other country.
“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it,” Trump tells Fox News.
“It’s a bad talking point. Because then you’d say, ‘Why don’t we give everyone $4 billion? Israel is our number one. We give them more than anybody else,’” he continues.
Trump insists that Israel doesn’t need the money and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the one who raised the idea — even though the premier has said he proposed ending aid gradually, not ceasing it immediately.
Moreover, the current aid package is not supposed to expire until the fall of 2028, not this year as Trump claimed.
“If they did need it, I would say keep it going. But we reached an agreement on that,” Trump says
“And can I be honest with you, [Netanyahu] brought it up. He said, ‘I think it would be appropriate if we do not receive aid.’ Because he understands that this is one of the points of contention,” Trump says, appearing to acknowledge how unpopular aid to Israel has become in the US.
“Israel has been a great ally — much more reliable than most,” Trump notes.
Finance Ministry officials said taken off guard by Trump announcing imminent halt to military aid
Officials in the Finance Ministry say they were surprised by US President Donald Trump’s announcement that military aid to Israel would cease by the end of the year, according to Hebrew media reports.
“No formal document was submitted from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the end of aid,” says an official, according to the Walla news site. “The ministry was aware of the intention to end it, but was surprised by the intention to do so immediately.”
The Ynet outlet quotes an unnamed senior Israeli financial official as saying the announcement has grave consequences for the economy: “Giving up two years of aid is $8 billion. Where will we get this? It’s clear — from citizens’ taxes.”
The Prime Minister’s Office is expected to comment on Trump’s statement soon.
3 comments:
St. Lucie nuclear power plants, just 20 feet above sea level and close to the Atlantic Ocean, a disaster waiting to happen. Flooding has already begun in St. Lucie county.
POTUS did this to shore up the Arab vote.
Truthfully we shouldn’t be giving aid to anyone when we’re trillions in debt. When was the last time some other country chipped in on our needs and gave us billions.
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