Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes Israel can reduce its dependence on U.S. military assistance within the next decade as the country works to deepen relations with Gulf nations, according to an interview aired on Sunday.
Netanyahu said Israel receives about $3.8 billion of U.S. military aid a year. The U.S. has agreed to provide a total of $38 billion in military aid to Israel from 2018 to 2028.
But it is “absolutely” the right time to possibly reset the U.S.-Israeli financial relationship, Netanyahu said.
“I don’t want to wait for the next Congress,” he told CBS. “I want to start now.”
U.S. Support For Israel Weakens Amid Gaza War
Israel has long had bipartisan consensus within the U.S. Congress for military aid, but support from lawmakers and the public has frayed since the outbreak of war in Gaza in October 2023.
Sixty percent of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, and 59% had little or no confidence in Netanyahu to do the right thing regarding world affairs, according to a Pew survey conducted in March. Both percentages were up seven percentage points from a year earlier.
Netanyahu said deteriorating support for Israel in the United States “correlates almost 100% with the geometric rise of social media.”
He said several countries, which he did not identify, have “basically manipulated” social media in a way that “hurt us badly,” though he personally did not believe in censorship.
No Timetable In Iran
Support for U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu, has also ebbed since US and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28.
The war has led to higher gasoline prices, which contributed to U.S. inflation rising on an annualized basis in March to the highest level since May 2023.
A significant factor behind higher fuel prices has been Iran’s throttling of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil normally passes.
Only after the war began did Israeli planners recognize Iran’s ability to close the strait, Netanyahu said. “It took a while for them to understand how big that risk is, which they understand now,” he said.
In the “60 Minutes” interview, Netanyahu declined to discuss Israel’s military plans or timetable in Iran, but he addressed the potential ramifications if Iran’s leadership changed.
Asked if it were possible to topple the Iranian regime, Netanyahu said: “Is it possible? Yes. Is it guaranteed? No.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
