US Should Not Sign Another MOU for More Weapons to Israel
IMEU Policy Project Memo #25
BACKGROUND
For the past three decades, the US and Israel have signed nonbinding Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) outlining the scope of proposed presidential budget requests to Congress for appropriations of taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel.
The current MOU, negotiated by the Obama administration and providing for Israel to receive $38 billion in weapons, expires in FY2028. According to recent media reports, initial negotiations began recently between US and Israeli officials for the next MOU, with Israel proposing that its term be extended to 20 years.
Israel is also reportedly seeking even greater annual appropriations of weapons than the $3.8 billion outlined in the current MOU, meaning that taxpayers could be on the hook for providing Israel with $76 billion of weapons at a bare minimum if the Trump administration accedes to Israel’s requests.
Members of Congress should speak out now against the US signing another MOU with Israel because of the immorality and illegality of providing weapons to a country committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and imposing apartheid rule on the Palestinian people–denying them their rights and freedom–especially as Americans continue to experience an affordability crisis, go bankrupt from medical bills, are saddled with student debt, and suffer from the lack of affordable housing while Israelis enjoy subsidized higher education and universal health care–subsidized by the US providing Israel with weapons at taxpayer expense.
TOPLINES
Weapons to Israel fuel its genocidal violence. Since October 2023, Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a conclusion affirmed by a UN commission, the International Court of Justice, leading Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, to name a few. During this time, the Biden and Trump administrations have delivered more than $30 billion of weapons to Israel, making the US not only complicit in Israel’s genocide, but partners in crime as well. Remnants of US weapons repeatedly have been found at the sites of likely war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.
Weapons to Israel reinforce Israeli apartheid and military rule. For more than 75 years, Israel has imposed separate-and-unequal apartheid rule on the Palestinian people, ethnically cleansing them from their homeland, denying refugees their right to return home, and enacting laws discriminating against Palestinians citizens of the state. And for nearly 60 years, Israel has imposed brutal military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Providing weapons to Israel entrenches its apartheid system and military rule, denying Palestinians their rights, including the right to self-determination, and their freedom.
Weapons to Israel violate US law. The Arms Export Control Act (AECA) strictly limits foreign countries’ use of US weapons to internal security and “legitimate” self-defense and to a few other narrow uses not applicable to Israel. Israel’s use of US weapons to entrench its foreign military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and to repeatedly commit apparent war crimes with these weapons–which can never be considered “legitimate”–violate the AECA. In addition, the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) prohibits the US from providing weapons to a country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Section 620I of the FAA specifically prohibits weapons to a country which blocks the delivery of US humanitarian aid, something which Israel continues to do in Gaza. Lastly, US law requires the US to uphold its legal obligation as a signatory to the Genocide Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, including by halting weapons to a country committing genocide.
Money spent on weapons to Israel could be used instead for human needs. Instead of giving Israel $76 billion in weapons to destroy Palestinian health clinics and hospitals, this money could provide free or low-cost healthcare to more than 26 million American children for a year. Instead of giving Israel $76 billion to destroy Palestinian homes and drive Palestinians off of their land, this money could provide 4 million American families with free rent for a year. Instead of giving Israel $76 billion in weapons to destroy Palestinian schools and universities, this money could provide 2 million Americans with student loan cancellations (budgetary tradeoffs are calculated from Not My Tax Dollars).
Weapons to Israel subsidize universal health care for Israelis while Americans’ health care premiums rise. In 2024, Israel had a higher per capita income than Japan, Kuwait, Poland, Puerto Rico, and Portugal. Israel is a wealthy country; it does not need US taxpayer-funded handouts. Israelis enjoy universal health care, among other benefits denied to Americans. By providing Israel with taxpayer-funded weapons, the US allows Israel to avoid a “guns versus butter” prioritization and effectively subsidizes Israel’s universal health care. Meanwhile, 26 million Americans have no health insurance, more than one-half million Americans file for bankruptcy each year due to medical bills, and ACA health care premiums will more than double next year if Congress fails to extend tax credits.
DETAILS
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance in the post-World War II era, receiving nearly $175 billion in non-inflation adjusted funding, $140 billion of which has been for weapons. Prior to the Clinton administration, Israel received a mixture of economic assistance and weapons subject to yearly presidential budget requests and congressional appropriations.
In 1999, the Clinton administration signed the first decade-long MOU between the US and Israel setting out the proposed parameters of presidential budgetary requests from FY1999-2008. The MOU stipulated that economic assistance would be phased out while budgetary requests for weapons to Israel would incrementally increase by one-third, reaching $2.4 billion annually by the end of the MOU. The total amount of assistance for this MOU was $26.7 billion, of which $21.3 billion was for weapons.
In 2007, the George W. Bush administration signed the second US-Israel MOU to provide $30 billion in weapons to Israel from FY2009-2018, the first MOU to consist solely of weapons.
In 2016, the Obama administration signed the third US-Israel MOU to provide a record-breaking $38 billion in weapons to Israel from FY2019-2028. This current MOU is supposed to phase out Off Shore Procurement (OSP), a unique Foreign Military Financing (FMF) provision that applies only to Israel. OSP previously enabled Israel to spend up to 26.3% of FMF appropriations on its own domestic weapons manufacturers.
While these MOU’s are nonbinding and are not treaties which require Senate ratification, they nevertheless create expectations that the president will submit a budget request for at least the dollar amount of weapons stipulated in MOU’s and that Congress will appropriate at least that amount. In other words, the MOU’s establish a baseline for the minimum dollar amount of weapons that Israel can expect to get from the US annually regardless of US budgetary constraints, Israel’s violations of US weapons laws, and the strategic interests of the US. In practice, Congress has treated these MOU’s as a floor rather than a ceiling, repeatedly passing supplemental appropriations for additional weapons to Israel above and beyond the terms of the MOU’s.
Cover Photo: Elyasaf Jehuda, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 2447527651