US urges Israel to accept military aid deal: Report

A new report says American officials are urging Israel to seal a military aid package deal with Washington as Tel Aviv would not find a better contract with the next US president.

According to the Israeli paper, Haaretz, after three rounds of talks between the United States and Israel, negotiations on a new military aid package for Tel Aviv have become stuck as the two sides try to strong-arm one another.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting that if Israel's security needs would not be met, he would not sign a deal and would instead wait for the next president to take office in January 2017, senior US officials reacted angrily and warned that the budgetary situation would not improve, and that Israel would not get a better deal with the next president.

"Even as we grapple with a particularly challenging budget environment, this administration's commitment to Israel's security is such that we are prepared to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Israel that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in US history," the newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"Israel is of course free to wait for the next administration to finalize a new MOU should it not be satisfied with such a pledge, but we would caution that the US budgetary environment is unlikely to improve in the next 1-2 years and Israel will certainly not find a president more committed to Israel's security than is President [Barack] Obama."

The report added Israel's security is a top priority for the Obama administration and to the extent that it can reach a new security memorandum of understanding, it will further exemplify President Obama's commitment to Israel's security.

The White House has already said, "From the $20.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing to the additional $3 billion in missile defense funding the United States has provided under his leadership, no other US Administration in history has done more for Israel's security."

The current MOU signed ten years ago between the US and Israel is due to expire at the end of 2018. As a result of the understanding, the United States has provided $30 billion over a decade in military aid to Israel. In the course of meetings between Netanyahu and Obama at the White House in November, the two announced the opening of new negotiations on the memorandum for the coming decade.

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