Topic: Obama and Netanyahu strike hawkish tone on US military aid to Israel (Read 300 times)

Israeli prime minister’s visit aimed at negotiations over size of the new 10-year military aid package and US president says there’s no question it will be renewed

Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu met for the first time in a year on Monday, pledging to spend much of their meeting discussing ways to expand US military aid to Israel.

Putting aside recent disagreements over Iran and Palestine, the US president and the Israeli prime minister struck a hawkish tone during opening remarks in the oval office.

“Israel has shouldered a tremendous defence burden over the years and we have done it with the generous assistance of the United States of America,” said Netanyahu, who is thought to be pushing for an existing 10-year deal struck by George W Bush that is worth a total of $30bn to be replaced by a substantially more generous one once it expires.

While White House officials have been playing down expectations of completing their negotiations on the size of the new 10-year military aid package during this week’s visit, Obama made clear there was no question it would be renewed.

“It will be expiring in a couple of years but we want to get a head start on that to make sure that both the US and Israel can plan effectively for our defence needs going forward,” said the US president.

“It’s no secret the security environment in the Middle East has deteriorated in many areas and, as I’ve said repeatedly, the security of Israel is one my top foreign policy priorities and that has expressed itself not only in words but in deeds.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/09/obama-netanyahu-us-visit-military-aid-israel