Partnership Recalibrated:The Next Era of U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation

As Israel and the United States prepare for the 2028 sunset of the current ten-year U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed in 2016 between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both the U.S. and Israel face difficult political environments and drastically altered geopolitical dynamics across the Middle East. 

Political headwinds from both directions in the U.S., along with Netanyahu’s recently declared intention to completely wind down American security assistance to Israel, raise questions as to whether a new MOU is feasible—and if it is, whether it should still revolve around U.S. security assistance. 

In Washington, the Trump administration remains generally wary of foreign assistance, and hostility to Israel has spiked on both the left and right following the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and, more recently, the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. 

In Israel, elections are on the horizon and Netanyahu has proposed to phase out U.S. aid within the next decade, due to a need for greater military self-sufficiency and an understanding that traditional assistance to Israel has become a convenient attack vector for anti-Israel sentiment in the United States. 

This means that another MOU will not mirror what came before, and in fact such a shift might be a positive development. It need not and should not signal that the U.S.-Israel relationship is less valuable. The next MOU can signal the strength and durability of U.S.-Israel ties beyond assistance, by cementing new opportunities for partnership and leaning into the shared interests that make the strategic relationship so beneficial.

A fourth agreement should lay the foundations for the next phase of the U.S.-Israel security relationship, evolving it from provider-recipient interaction to an equal partnership focused on joint investment, cutting-edge technological development, integrated co-production, and ensuring a strong U.S.-led and Israel-supported regional security order. It should also tie to U.S. strategic and operational needs in the near-term. For both the U.S. and Israeli defense establishments, there is more that binds them together than U.S. aid. If done thoughtfully, this agreement could yield over the next decade an enhanced bilateral relationship that builds on the past three decades of security assistance and cooperation, and prepares the U.S. and Israel to capitalize on each country’s comparative advantage to confront the threats and challenges of the future.