Israeli President Isaac Herzog said US President Donald Trump’s announcement that American military aid to Israel would end had taken him completely by surprise. Herzog described the decision as “a bolt from the blue.”
Herzog raised the issue during a meeting with the Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, the main political rival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The issue of American aid worries me greatly, and it also fell on me like a bolt from the blue,” the president said.
He recalled that Israel has a memorandum of understanding with the United States that is meant to remain in effect until 2028. Herzog said this was one of the country’s major goals and argued that a government must be formed instead of holding repeated elections.
Trump said the aid would end this year, two years before the formal expiration of the memorandum. The agreement provides Israel with $3.8 billion a year to purchase American weaponry. The US president gave few details about the decision, which he announced during an Election Day phone interview with Fox News.
Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the announcement. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he was seeking clarification about what would happen to the aid.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News, Huckabee defended the military support, which has become increasingly unpopular among both Democrats and Republicans. He said Americans needed to understand the value of the relationship with Israel. “It’s not about what Americans are putting into it. It’s about what they are getting out of it,” he said.
Huckabee added that officials may not have done enough to help the American public understand and appreciate the partnership with Israel, which he said had benefited Americans’ lives every day.
The ambassador also disagreed with Vice President JD Vance, who wrote on X that the relationship with Israel had contributed to Republican losses in the midterm elections. Huckabee, a strong supporter of Israel, said he did not believe support for the country was toxic among the conservative wing and the Republican Party.
Source: cnn.com
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7629 | 6 Nov. 2026 | 15:23
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