BICOM

The new US military aid package to Israel is set to be finalised in the very near future, according to a senior US official.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, speaking at the Interdisciplinary Centre’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, shortly after a memorial in Israel marking 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, said that the new military aid deal would be in place until 2029 and would constitute “the US’s biggest aid package to any other country in history”.

He added that the agreement “would be finalised in the very near future”.

The current memorandum of understanding details a defence package worth more than £2bn, due to expire in 2017. It is thought that the two remaining sticking points on a new deal have been resolved. Reports indicated that Israel has agreed to the gradual phasing out of the current arrangement whereby Israel is permitted to spend up to 40 per cent of the aid package on defence purchases in Israel.

In addition, Israel has also apparently agreed to Washington’s preference to include spending on Israel’s missile defence system within the overall military aid package. Until now, it such spending has been subject to a separate allocation by US Congress.

However, media reports including Israel’s Walla news site and the Washington Post claimed that signing the new agreement was being held up by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who heads the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the foreign affairs budget. Graham reportedly regarded the attempt to remove spending on Israel’s missile defence from the purview of Congress as an affront to Congressional power.

Graham was quoted in the Washington Post saying: “We can’t have the executive branch dictating what the legislative branch will do for a decade based on an agreement we are not a party to.”

According to the report, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Graham at the request of the Obama administration in order to discuss the issue.