In spite of Israel’s recent promise to eliminate all tariffs on U.S. goods, President Trump has so far refused to eliminate his new 17% tariff on the Jewish state. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House attempting to persuade Trump to reduce or eliminate this tariff. Trump’s reply? “We already give Israel so much money.”

Mr. Trump, the U.S. doesn’t give Israel aid, it makes an extraordinarily high-return investment.

It’s true, the U.S. provides Israel $3.8 billion in aid each year, plus billions more over the last year and a half due to the current war in Gaza that followed the October 7^th massacre. But this aid isn’t really aid at all. It’s an investment that returns billions of dollars more than its cost in benefits to U.S. security and defense industries. American taxpayers can rest assured this investment delivers a far greater return than that of U.S. aid granted to any other country.

U.S. support for Israel is crucial for securing American interests in the Middle East, because Israel’s enemies—Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis—are also America’s enemies. In fact, Israel often does the dirty work of combatting these enemies so America doesn’t have to. Furthermore, when the U.S. does act directly in the Middle East or elsewhere, it often relies on Israeli intelligence, battle-hardened experience and military cooperation to do so.

U.S. support for Israel also delivers technological and economic benefits for both countries. Most of this financial backing, for example, goes towards purchasing American military equipment, supporting tens of thousands of American defense jobs.

Arguments on both the right and left of the American political spectrum against continued U.S. investment in Israel just don’t stand up to scrutiny. U.S. support for Israel doesn’t contradict American interests in any way, nor does the U.S. exercise undue influence over Israel because of the support we give it. But suspending investment in Israel—as a tiny contingent of U.S. Congress members have proposed—would severely compromise American security, financial stability and Middle East strategic interests.

If President Trump wants to bolster the U.S. economy and prevent unnecessary expenses, he will reduce Israel’s U.S. tariffs and increase U.S. investment in Israeli military capability and technological innovation.

U.S. investment in Israel helps protect both countries from our mutual enemies. All enemies who seek to destroy Israel also want to destroy America, not to mention the rest of Western civilization. Indeed, the ultimate goal of Iran and its proxies is to create a global Islamic caliphate.

Oftentimes, Israel has saved America the trouble of having to militarily intervene directly to combat mutual enemies. For example, Israel’s air attack on Iran last year wiped out much of their missile production capabilities, compromising Iran’s ability to manufacture missiles that can be used by it and its proxies to attack the Jewish state, U.S. bases in the region, and Arab allies of the U.S.

The U.S. relies heavily on Israeli intelligence and experience to conduct military operations. Israel is a world leader in cybersecurity and intelligence gathering, providing the U.S. a priceless feed of classified information about Iran, Syria, Russia, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. In fact, according to former ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Israel is the most productive external source of military intelligence for the U.S., exceeding all NATO countries combined.

It was the work of Israel’s Mossad, for example, that retrieved the archives on Iran’s nuclear program, exposing the Islamic Republic’s intention to build nuclear weapons. Israel has also assisted in foiling anti-U.S. terrorism and attempts to topple pro-U.S. Arab regimes. Gen. George Keegan, a former chief of U.S. Air Force Intelligence, remarked: “I could not have procured the intelligence [received from Israel] with five CIAs.” Note that the annual budget of the CIA is about $15 billion—many times more than the U.S. grants Israel annually.

Israel’s also shares its battle experience with the U.S. For instance, Israel’s top experts have trained U.S. special forces on neutralizing car bombs, suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

U.S. investment in Israel delivers vast technological and economic benefits. Per bilateral agreements, Israel must spend 70% of U.S. financial assistance on American military equipment, directly supporting over 20,000 jobs in the U.S. and indirectly supporting thousands of other jobs. Much of the military technology used by the U.S. was developed in Israel. The Iron Dome, for example, which was invented in Israel but produced in America, is now a part of the U.S. Army’s defense system. Israel is also second only to the U.S. as an innovative hub of American commercial high-tech, hosting world-class research and development centers of some 250 U.S. high-tech giants, such as Intel, Google and Microsoft.

Arguments against stopping financial support for Israel don’t hold water. American far-leftist politicians like Bernie Sanders, who recently tried to halt investment in Israel in the Senate, argue that it contravenes American interests. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Israel is one of America’s strongest allies globally, and no other U.S. ally works as hard militarily to protect American Middle East interests or defeat our enemies as Israel.

Even better, unlike foreign countries like South Korea and Japan, which both host tens of thousands of American troops, Israel has never requested American boots on Israeli soil, nor will it ever.

Also consider Ethiopia, Jordan and Egypt—along with Israel among the top five U.S. financial aid recipients. They make virtually no positive contributions to America, but rather absorb billions of U.S. dollars to resolve their own deficits and dysfunctionality.

Finally, those who argue that the U.S. exercises undue influence on Israel because of the assistance it gives the Jewish state also have no case. Israel is a sovereign country that has acted against America’s wishes on many occasions, For example, the IDF wouldn’t have invaded the Gazan city of Rafah if Israel had heeded the wishes of former President Biden.

U.S. tariffs will harm Israel’s economy and make Israel weaker—which contravenes American interests. Trump’s tariffs also harm the strong, mutually beneficial relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Damage to U.S.-Israel ties only buttresses our mutual enemies, who believe they can take advantage of tensions between the two countries.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that if President Trump wants to make the U.S. stronger and more financially efficient, he could do no better than to increase investment in Israel’s military power.

If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge.

Best regards,
Jason Shvili, Contributing Editor
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.      I’m sure you’d agree: If your enemy says they want to kill you and take your land, you’d be smart to believe them. If you try to make peace, but they refuse all your offers and continue to make murderous threats, it’s time to eliminate this enemy. Israel has faced exactly this danger with the Palestinians—yet continued to hope for peace . . . until Hamas’s October 7 massacre and kidnappings. Finally, Israel and many lovers of Israel are facing reality. They’ve concluded their futile dreams of peace must end. They must finally defeat their Palestinian enemies—starting with Hamas and other jihadi terrorists. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of the Israel-U.S. relationship need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“End of the Palestinian Lie”—describes how Israel and the West have for 77 years bought the myth that the Palestinians want peace. It details the many offers of land for peace Israel, the U.N. and the U.S. have made to give Palestinians their own state—all refused. Finally, it explains why Israel must adopt a bold new strategy—disarming, disabling and defeating Hamas and all other terror groups that attack Israeli civilians. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME intends to publish to millions—in leading social media, as well as in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Los Angeles Times. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, the President and Vice President. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation.

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