Next year, the “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) between Jerusalem and Washington, signed in 2007, will expire. Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama are currently negotiating a new memorandum that, like its predecessor, will be concerned primarily with U.S. financial support for the Israeli military, and should run for the next ten years. Although in dollar terms the new agreement proposed by Washington is more generous than the one it replaces, Shoshana Bryen argues that it comes with conditions that make it far less helpful:
[All] of the money [offered in the proposed MOU must] be spent in the U.S., while Israel is presently able to spend 25 percent [domestically].
This is a subsidy for U.S. defense industries and constrains Israel’s defense choices by forcing the IDF to exclude weapons from Europe and elsewhere [and leaves it with less to spend on locally manufactured equipment]. While some think of Israel as an expense to the U.S., the fact is that [its technological] innovations—shared with Washington by agreement—have helped mitigate the decline in the American missile-defense budget in an era of growing threats. Without the ability to spend some money in Israel, it will be harder for smaller defense and high-tech industries to keep up. . . .
Israel will [also] be prohibited from asking Congress for additional funds, effectively removing a bipartisan [source] of support for Israel’s security from the equation and reducing Israel’s flexibility in addressing rapidly emerging threats. . . .
[The Jewish state currently] finds itself in a vastly improved international situation even as its neighborhood declines. It would have been in the larger interest of the United States to enhance [its defensive] capabilities rather than trying to constrain them.
Read more on Gatestone: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8667/israe-mou-aid