2013 Briefing Book - Print Version - Aipac

FOREIGN AID
The Importance of U.S. Security Aid
to Israel
U.S. security assistance to Israel in the annual foreign aid bill is the most
tangible manifestation of American support, especially during a time of
tremendous turmoil in the Middle East. American aid is vital to ensuring that
Israel maintains its qualitative military edge and its deterrence capabilities.
KEY POINTS
• U.S. assistance to Israel provides financial and technological support critical to keeping
Israel strong and able to defend herself.
• Israel spends a greater percentage of its gross domestic product on defense than does
any other advanced nation.
• Despite its own extraordinary efforts, Israel finds it increasingly difficult to keep pace with
the challenges of a potentially nuclear-armed Iran, military buildups by the terrorist groups
Hamas and Hizballah, and growing regional instability and uncertainty.
• U.S. assistance helps counter the great disparity in aggregate military spending between
Israel and its Arab and Iranian neighbors.
• U.S. aid demonstrates to friend and foe alike that America’s commitment to the Jewish
state is unwavering.
• President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request for $3.1 billion in aid to Israel
represents the sixth year of a 10-year security agreement entered into by President
George W. Bush outlining America’s enduring security commitment to the Jewish state.
The Important Role That Congress Can Play
Congress should support the administration’s request for $3.1 billion in security assistance
for Israel in fiscal years 2013 and 2014. In the long term, it should support continued security
assistance to the Jewish state in accordance with the terms of a 2007 Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) between the two countries that calls upon America to provide $30 billion
to Israel over a 10-year period.
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